Green levies to return to family power payments in July
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reen levies that had been briefly faraway from family electrical energy payments will hit customers once more from the beginning of July.
The suspension, introduced by Liz Truss’s authorities as a part of a help bundle amid skyrocketing costs final September, was meant to final for 2 years.
But the associated fee will once more be imposed on customers from subsequent month.
Levies greater than pay for themselves by driving funding in renewables and different era expertise
The inexperienced levies have been briefly funded by the Treasury as a part of the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), which restricted annual power prices to £2,500 for the common family.
But the Exchequer will not subsidise folks’s power payments – together with protecting the price of the inexperienced levies – when the Ofgem value cap falls to beneath the EPG stage.
The regulator will reduce its value cap from £3,280 to £2,074 from July 1 following tumbling wholesale costs.
Even as clients once more pay power charges in full, together with for inexperienced levies, the common power invoice will fall by £426 a yr as a result of drop within the value cap.
A Treasury supply mentioned the Government has not “made an active decision” to saddle customers with the inexperienced levies once more.
“That’s how the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) works,” the mentioned. “It’s part of the design of the scheme announced in September 2022.”
Green and social levies make up round £170 per yr per family, the division mentioned, and go in direction of funding low-cost renewable power and residential insulation for pensioners and low-income households.
A Government spokesperson added: “Levies more than pay for themselves by driving investment in renewables and other generation technology and have saved consumers money on their energy bills overall over the past 10 years.”
But the change could increase eyebrows after Grant Shapps on Saturday informed the Telegraph he didn’t need to “see people’s household bills unnecessarily bashed” by the drive to web zero because the cost-of-living disaster continues.
The Energy Security Secretary signalled a U-turn on a Government plan to impose an annual levy on power customers in 2025 to fund manufacturing of hydrogen.
Meanwhile, the Government has mentioned an entire ban on coal energy era “isn’t appropriate”.
The Government suffered a defeat within the House of Lords earlier this yr as friends narrowly backed a change to the Energy Bill banning the opening of latest coal mines.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson mentioned: “While our reliance on coal is rapidly diminishing, there is still a need for it in industries such as steel and cement so now is not the right time to make changes.
“We will continue to listen to representations made by Members as passage of the Bill continues but oppose this amendment because a complete ban isn’t appropriate and risks meeting future demand from our own resources.”