UK regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) proposes to cap domestic retail energy bills at £1,136/year (€1,264) for 11 million customers as per the new Government’s Domestic Gas and Electricity (tariff cap) act, which became law in July 2018. The new cap has to be set up by the end of 2018 and will force UK electricity and gas retail suppliers to cut their prices to the level of or below the cap.
Ofgem expects the cap to save consumers who use a typical amount of gas and electricity around £75/year in average. Besides, approximately 11 million households on poor value default tariffs are slated to be protected from being overcharged with the introduction of the price cap, which is meant to be a temporary measure and remain in place until 2023 at the latest.
This measure will not affect the remaining power and gas customers. As of 2017, the six largest UK suppliers (also labelled as "Big Six") had 23.6 million electricity customers and 19.5 million gas customers.