The Government Energy Price Guarantee: how it works
The Government Energy Price Guarantee is a discount that has been applied automatically to the unit rates of electricity and gas, since October 2022. It is provided by the government, to help with the high costs of bills. You don’t need to apply for the discount and you don’t need to pay it back.
How the Energy Price Guarantee is changing from 1st July 2023
The government threshold for providing support with energy bills has now been raised to £3000. As the price cap (and non price-capped tariffs like the Good Energy Standard tariff) are now below this rate, the EPG discount will no longer be applied to energy bills. Future changes to the price cap may mean that the government changes the EPG threshold again – we will update this page if this happens.
What you need to know
The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee is:
- A discount applied on the rate per unit of energy. From April to June 2023, this is 16.56p/kWh for electricity and 2.18p/kWh for gas. Exact discounts may vary depending on your tariff.
- From 1st July 2023 the discount will be 0p, because the price cap is below the threshold for providing support.
- The discount has been effective from 1st October 2022.
- Applied to all household tariffs, including fixed tariffs and standard variable tariffs, which are not subject to the price cap, such as Good Energy’s (read more about why here).
- Discounts to fixed tariffs are subject to a region-specific ‘floor rate’ which it will reduce the cost to, but not below.
- Applied to a weighted average of the rates of multi-rate tariffs such as Economy 7.
- Applied automatically, you do not need to apply for or request the discount.
- Funded through government money, not a loan to be paid back through energy bills.
- In place for the next year, though the unit rates will change every three months in line with Ofgem’s price cap calculations.
How do I get the Government Energy Price Guarantee discount?
You don’t need to apply for the scheme. It will be applied automatically to the unit rates you are charged from 1st October.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
From 1st April to the end of June, the discount is 16.56p/kWh for electricity, and 2.18p/kWh for gas.
From 1st July the discount is 0p because the price cap is below the government threshold for providing support.
Previous discounts have been calculated to bring the average household energy bill down to £2,500. This means the discount rate may go up or down depending on the level Ofgem sets the price cap every three months.
The price cap was £3,280 from 1st April, so the EPG discount applied. It is dropping to £2,074 on 1st July, which means the EPG will not be added.
Yes, customers on Good Energy’s SVT will receive the full discount. However as the Government Energy Price Guarantee is a unit rate discount from the price cap and not a new cap this does not guarantee that our SVT prices will be in line with capped tariffs.
It varies by region, averaging at around 34p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas.
No standing charges are not covered by the Government Energy Price Guarantee. These are still limited by the price cap for customers on capped tariffs, which does not include the Good Energy SVT. Read more about our SVT here.
The Government Energy Price Guarantee is a unit rate discount to all domestic energy tariffs, including fixed tariffs. However it is subject to a ‘floor rate’ below which tariffs are not discounted. This means fixed tariffs will receive the discount either in full or down to this floor rate, but if your fixed tariff is already at or below the floor rate you will not receive a discount.
For electricity tariffs with more than one unit rate (like Economy 7), the government discount will be applied to the weighted average of the tariff rates.
