EDF Energy has announced an average 10.8% increase in its standard variable prices for gas and electricity residential customers from 7 December 2012.
Earlier in October, Scottish Power had announced increases for its domestic gas and electricity prices by an average of 7% as of 3 December 2012. The price change will result in the following increases for an average combined gas and electricity bill: a monthly Direct Debit customer will see an increase of 8.7%,with a new average annual Dual Fuel bill of £1,271 (€1,570); quarterly Cash or Cheque customers will see an increase of 1.4%, with a new average annual Dual Fuel bill of £1,368 (excludes Prompt Payer discounts), i.e. €1,689; prepayment customers will see an increase of 8.6%, with a new average annual bill of £1,349 (€1,666). These price increases should affect 2.3 million households.
This announcement follows those of British Gas (+6% on average for gas and electricity as of 16 November 2012, thus raising the annual dual fuel bills for BG customers by £80, or €99) and of RWE's subsidiary npower (+8.8% for gas and +9.1% for electricity as of November 26). SSE had announced a 9% increase in gas and electricity prices in late August 2012. It came into effect on 15 October.
The latest round of price increases will raise energy bills for almost 20 million households; this figure could rise should EDF follow suit (E.ON has a price freeze in place until the end of 2012, but has refused to rule out an increase thereafter).
According to EDF Energy's estimates, the average bill for dual fuel customers, based on a standard consumption of 3,300 kWh/year of electricity and 16,500 kWh/year of natural gas, would range between £1,251 (€1,561) for EDF Energy and £1,274 (€1,590) for SSE.