Electricity companies will no longer be able to deploy a controversial tactic that forces up bills at the expense of consumers, the energy watchdog has said as it unveiled rules designed to curb firms making “excessive” profits in the winter.
The “balancing mechanism” is the main tool used by the National Grid electricity system operator (ESO) to plug gaps between supply and demand on the network.
It allows the ESO to do deals with generators at short notice to ensure the right amount of electricity supply to maintain relative equilibrium on the grid, preventing imbalances that can cause problems such as power outages.
Annual balancing costs tripled in the winter of 2021-22, as power prices surged to record highs, rising to £1.5bn compared with an average of £500m in the previous three years, Ofgem said.
Ofgem said the new Inflexible Offers Licence Condition (IOLC), which comes into effect on 26 October, would ban this practice and would apply to any generators that switched off their plant for more than an hour.
The actions Ofgem’s new rules are designed to prevent were not in breach of electricity generators’ licence conditions at the time they took place.
The original article contains 724 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Electricity companies will no longer be able to deploy a controversial tactic that forces up bills at the expense of consumers, the energy watchdog has said as it unveiled rules designed to curb firms making “excessive” profits in the winter.
The “balancing mechanism” is the main tool used by the National Grid electricity system operator (ESO) to plug gaps between supply and demand on the network.
It allows the ESO to do deals with generators at short notice to ensure the right amount of electricity supply to maintain relative equilibrium on the grid, preventing imbalances that can cause problems such as power outages.
Annual balancing costs tripled in the winter of 2021-22, as power prices surged to record highs, rising to £1.5bn compared with an average of £500m in the previous three years, Ofgem said.
Ofgem said the new Inflexible Offers Licence Condition (IOLC), which comes into effect on 26 October, would ban this practice and would apply to any generators that switched off their plant for more than an hour.
The actions Ofgem’s new rules are designed to prevent were not in breach of electricity generators’ licence conditions at the time they took place.
The original article contains 724 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!