By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
Npower, one of the UK's biggest energy suppliers, has stoked the political row over utility pricing, blaming the Government for favouring smaller peers and "political factors" for influencing commercial decision-making.
In a letter to Matthew Hancock, the Energy Minister, Npower's chief executive said the scope for reflecting recent falls in wholesale gas and oil prices in consumers' bills was limited by politicians' intervention in the market.
"Political factors have...become increasingly significant over the last few years, particularly as we approach the UK general election," Paul Massara wrote in the letter, a copy of which has been passed to Sky News.
"Any change in prices in the short term will inevitably have to take account [of] potential outcomes after May this year."
Although he did not refer to it explicitly, Whitehall sources said Mr Massara was drawing attention to the Labour leader Ed Miliband's plan for a 20-month price freeze if his party wins the election.
Mr Hancock had written to the six largest gas and electricity suppliers to demand that they pass on recent wholesale price falls to consumers.
He is due to meet them separately in the next few weeks for further talks.
Earlier this week, Eon - which, like Npower, is German-owned - announced that it was shaving 3.5% off the cost of its standard gas tariff, equivalent to £24 off a typical household's annual bill.
Other energy companies have signalled privately, however, that the threat of a price freeze has made it commercially risky to cut prices ahead of the election.
On Wednesday, Labour was defeated in a House of Commons vote to secure support for powers for the regulator, Ofgem, to be able to force companies to reduce consumer bills in line with wholesale price movements.
Labour was forced to adapt the language of its energy policy, insisting that the freeze was actually intended to be a cap, although it continues to use the original language in online material promoting one of its flagship policies.
Mr Massara's letter rejected a comparison drawn by Mr Hancock between the approach to price reductions of the 'Big Six' and smaller suppliers.
"The proportion of customers on fixed-price contracts is much higher for smaller independent suppliers than it is for large suppliers.
"This allows them to claim that they are reducing prices when in fact they are simply offering a new lower price fixed-price contract for new customers, in the same way we do, which may in part explain your perception that they may have moved earlier."
Mr Massara added that "actions by both Government and the regulator means that small supplier have significant benefits in terms of exemptions from licence conditions and also in terms of passing through the cost of social and environmental levies."
The Npower chief executive also pointed to the impact on global energy markets of unrest in the Middle East and the conflict in Ukraine during the last year.
And he reiterated the argument of energy bosses that a substantial proportion of customers' bills related to network charges and the widespread introduction of smart meters, the costs of which analysts expect to increase this year.
"In the case of our domestic standard tariff, we buy forward in the market to protect our customers from volatile swings in wholesale energy costs, both up and down," he wrote.
Mr Massara also said that "the recent fall in wholesale price is being actively looked at...and we...take into account competitive pressure".
He added that the company would write to standard tariff customers in the next fortnight to outline alternative pricing plans.
Npower refused to comment on the letter.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Npower Fuels Debate Over Energy Price Cuts
Dengan url
http://temannyakawanya.blogspot.com/2015/01/npower-fuels-debate-over-energy-price.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Npower Fuels Debate Over Energy Price Cuts
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Npower Fuels Debate Over Energy Price Cuts
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar