Around 1.8 million E.ON customers will see their gas bills cut by 3.3% - saving them around £25 a year, the energy giant has announced today.  E.ON said the gas price reduction, which follows a 9% decrease for electricity tariffs on March 31, would take effect on Saturday.  It is also scrapping the standing charge for gas prepayment in a move affecting more than 200,000 meter customers. The removal of the standing charge for meter gas customers follows a pledge by the firm to scrap it late last year. UK utility groups have been slammed in recent months over their treatment of prepayment customers amid claims they have overcharged those on meters.

E.ON, which has a total of 5.5 million UK customers, said it was “committed to offering competitive energy prices at all times and delivering on our promises” But it comes after E.ON hiked gas prices by 45% and electricity by 27% last ye

British Gas plans to create 2,600 jobs over the next three years to help introduce so-called “smart meters” in British homes, the company said on Wednesday. The new workers will install the smart meters and help homeowners understand how the devices can potentially help reduce energy use, and save money on monthly bills. Britain plans to replace all existing electricity and gas meters often clunky objects hidden away amid domestic clutter in dark cupboards with easily viewed devices that show consumers exactly how much energy they are using, including by individual appliances.

The hope is people will change their behaviour to save money. The meters will also help homeowners sell electricity from green technologies like roof-top wind turbines back to the grid while improving energy demand forecasts and network management.

Smart meters are seen as a first step toward creating “smart grids” where consumers can adjust electricity use to benefit from cheaper energy at times of low demand, including charging electric cars, and reduce consumption at peak times.

“Today’s announcement of 2,600 new jobs by 2012 shows we are creating skilled green jobs in Britain and training the experts who will help customers become more energy efficient in the future,” Phil Bentley, managing direct at British Gas said in a statement.

The British government estimates that smart meters could deliver net benefits of between 2.5 million pounds and 3.6 million pounds over the next 20 years.

In April, the government set a 2020 target to cut Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent compared with 1990 levels. But the necessary renewable energy growth and efficiency improvements have so far been small.

The new British Gas workers will advise customers on the range of rates available, conduct energy efficiency audits and provide tips on how to cut energy use.

The 2,600 new jobs are in addition to the 1,500 new green jobs the company announced earlier this year.

British Gas, the UK’s biggest household electricity supplier, is cutting electricity prices by an average of 10 percent, its parent Centrica said on Thursday. The price cut, which comes after British Gas reduced gas prices in February, will take effect immediately and apply to some 4.5 million residential customers, Centrica said. Centrica said the price cuts are a result of falling wholesale electricity prices. All the six major U.K. energy suppliers, Centrica, RWE’s nPower, E.ON, EDF, Scottish & Southern and Iberdrola’s Scottish Power — increased prices last year, although some have since reduced them. “I’m pleased we are now able to cut an average 10 percent from our standard electricity prices and continue to help our customers during this economic downturn,” said Managing Director Phil Bentley.

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npower has become the latest energy provider to reduce its prices, announcing an 8% reduction in the cost of electricity – bringing customers’ bills down an average £43. Now all the top six energy providers – npower, E.ON, British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern – have announced price cuts, with E.ON offering the highest cuts of 9% for electricity. This will, however, be of little comfort to the 44% of the UK’s population who have been cutting back on essentials such as food in order to afford their winter energy bills, according to research from statutory campaigning organisation, Consumer Focus.

It stated that almost three in five people (59%) believe the cuts in energy prices will make little or no difference to their bills. Jonathan Stearn, Consumer Focus energy expert, said: “It is disgraceful that huge winter energy bills are causing such misery for so many of the most vulnerable families, pensioners and disabled people. Recent meagre energy price cuts will barely dent fuel poverty levels.”

npower has stated that its monthly direct debit ‘dual fuel’ tariff is more than £30 cheaper than that of British Gas. Kevin Miles, npower retail’s CEO, said of the company’s price cuts: “Wholesale prices are still higher than in 2007 but we are determined to reduce prices for our electricity customers. This reduction follows our price cuts for gas pre-payment customers in December.

“Gas and electricity pre-payment customers no longer pay a premium over our standard tariffs. We will continue to keep our costs and prices under review to ensure that we remain competitive and give our customers value for money.”

npower’s price cuts will come into effect on 31 March 2009.

Since 1998, Ebico has been leading the way in lowering household energy bills all over the UK. This is one of the few energy companies that is able to do this, because they are nonprofit. The whole business plan of Ebico is to put people before profit, to help insure affordable energy for all people. This is easy to do, because Ebico has no shareholders that it has to try to please. All their efforts go into their rates.

Ebico announced that, as of March 2nd, 2009, people from all regions of the UK would see a drop in home electricity and gas prices. The last time Ebico made an announcement about prices it was to increase them back in September of 2008. Now, when the people need them the most, Ebico has stepped once again to lower prices all around.

Gas prices are being dropped by 2.52% in all regions of the UK. The reduction of electricity is going to work a little differently. Overall there will be an average 7.74% drop over the whole region. However, certain areas will see a bigger drop while other places may see a smaller drop. For example, in London, electricity prices will drop by 8.34%. However, North of Scotland will only see prices drop by 4.49%. In other areas like Yorkshire, they will be looking at a price drop of 6.61%.

These reduced power bills could not have come at a better time for most of the families in the UK. With the rescission in full swing, people need all the help that they can get.

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EDF Energy became the latest UK energy supplier to lower its fuel bills, announcing it was trimming its UK electricity prices by nearly 9% per cent from March 31st. However, the cuts will only benefit consumers in the south, Wales and Scotland and not those in the Midlands or Northern England. The announcement, which will benefit around 2.3 million households, or around half of EDF’s 5.5 million total, has raised the pressure on Scottish Power and N-Power, the only two major UK energy suppliers who have still not yet cut their bills this year, to do so soon. Some standard rate electricity customers could see as much as a 12.5 percent fall in rates, the French-owned company said. The group’s gas prices have also been left on hold, despite steep falls in the wholesale price of gas in the past eight months. “In this time of extremely volatile energy markets, EDF Energy continues to ensure very competitive prices for our customers,” Eva Eisenschimmel, head of brand performance at EDF Energy, said in a statement. “In 2008, we passed on the lowest gas price rises of any of the major utility suppliers.”

British Gas, E.ON and Scottish and Southern Energy have all cut some of their prices already this year although critics say the cuts do not go far enough following a near halving in the wholesale price of energy since last summer. E.ON also left its gas prices frozen after hiking them by 41 per cent in 2008. The announcement came as N-Power agreed to repay £1.2 million to some 200,000 customers after a probe by regulator Ofgem. Ofgem said Npower agreed to “put things right” after the watchdog completed an investigation into changes to its gas tariffs in 2007. Ofgem said Npower’s approach to telling its customers about the changes meant some households whose consumption was low lost out financially.

Energy firm E.On has announced it is lowering its electricity prices by 9% for most of its customers. E.On says 4.1 million households will benefit from the reduction, which comes into effect on 31 March. It is not reducing its gas prices. E.On said it knew its customers were facing a difficult time and it continued to monitor the market. The move follows price cuts by competitors British Gas and Scottish & Southern Energy. British Gas is to cut its gas prices by 10%, effective from 19 February. Scottish & Southern will cut the price of electricity by 9% and gas by 4% from 30 March. A spokeswoman for E.On said it was not reducing the price of gas because it had “offered one of the lowest prices for gas throughout the winter months when our customers have needed to use more gas to heat their homes”. “Electricity usage is far more stable throughout the year and we feel our customers will benefit more from this decrease as we approach the warmer months,” she said.

Millions of utility bills are set to fall after four energy suppliers pledged to follow cuts by British Gas and Southern Electric. Bosses from the foreign-owned suppliers E.On, RWE, npower, EDF and Scottish Power were embarrassed into declaring they will cut charges after MPs demanded to know why they have delayed following the British-owned companies’ lead. E.On retail director Jim Macdonald told the energy select committee today the chances of an imminent cut are “increasing rather than decreasing”. Martin Lawrence, supply director of EDF, said the firm is ‘actively looking’ at cuts. Nick Horler, chief executive of Scottish Power, said: “We are likely to move soon.”

British Gas slashed its own prices for gas by 10 per cent this month - now foreign-owned firms are likely to follow Guy Johnson, director at npower, said it is cutting ’social tariffs’ to vulnerable customers. The attack came from the boss of one of the two major British-owned power suppliers during tense exchanges with MPs who are investigating sky high bills.

British Gas has announced a 10per cent price cut on gas, while Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) is cutting electricity by 9per cent and gas by 4per cent.

Today SSE’s combative chief executive, Ian Marchant, said he could not understand why these foreign firms have not announced price cuts. ‘One of the questions that occurs to me is why it is the two British quoted companies that have announced (price cuts) first and the four Continental Europeans that haven’t,’ he said. ‘I don’t know whether that is significant, but it is an interesting question.’ He added: ‘I am sitting here torn. I hope they don’t reduce prices because that means I can win customers. But that is not the answer for UK plc.

‘So I hope they get off their backsides and do something in the next few weeks.’
Average household gas bills rose by 50per cent in 2008 and electricity by around a third. The net effect was to add around £400 a year to the cost of heat and light. Ian Marchant has attacked foreign-owned firms for not cutting prices The wholesale price of gas and electricity has fallen by 40per cent since the peak last summer. However, UK customers are paying record tariffs.

Mr Marchant said it is his hope that the entire industry will cut bills at least once in the next few weeks, with a further reduction later this year. The SSE chief also attacked the foreign power giants for operating secretive accounting systems that make it very difficult to see how much profit they are making in the UK, and how much tax they are paying here. Both British Gas and SSE publish information on their profit margins. However, some of the foreign firms do not even declare a UK profit figure. The British Gas chief executive, Phil Bentley, also took up the attack on the foreign rivals. He pointed out that German, French and Spanish firms have been able to buy UK suppliers, power stations and storage. However, British firms cannot do the same in these other countries.
He complained that some foreign firms had been exporting UK gas to Europe throughout the winter via an Interconnector pipeline under the English Channel, despite high demand here.

‘In the last 120 days, the interconnector has been exporting gas from the UK into Europe for 100 of those,’ he complained. The net effect is to keep wholesale prices in the UK higher than necessary. MPs on the Energy & Climate Change Committee, chaired by former Government minister, Elliot Morley, challenged company chiefs from the foreign firms to cut their prices. Senior executives from the firms indicated there would be announcements ’soon’. However, that did not satisfy the committee and one MP suggested the clamour to hit the industry with a windfall tax is likely to grow unless there is action.

Labour MP, Dr Des Turner, said: ‘The public has the perception, rightly on wrongly, that companies are squirrelling away unjustifiable levels of profit…There is a great deal of public support for a windfall tax.

‘Given that you are so coy about protecting your bottom line and unwilling to tell us why it is you can’t reduce prices now, rather than some optimistic time in the future, can you give an honest rebuttal of the call for a windfall tax?’

The firms insisted profits are vital to help pay for new power stations, including nuclear and wind farms, to ensure the lights stay on. Eon commercial director, Jim McDonald said while wholesale prices are down compared to last summer, they remain 75per cent above the figure in February 2007.

‘We will do our best to reduce our prices as soon as we can do,’ he said. Guy Johnson of Npower said UK gas prices were the cheapest in the EU, while electricity prices were the among the lowest. He said the company is spending millions subsidising home insulation for customers and ensuring those in need are moved to cheaper social tariffs. Chief executive of Scottish Power, Nick Horler, said the firm is likely to cut prices soon.
While Martin Lawrence of EDF said: ‘We are actively looking at prices and expect to move our prices soon.’

Scottish and Southern Energy said Friday it will cut retail prices for electricity by 9% and for gas by 4% from March 30th, citing lower wholesale energy prices.

SSE is the second U.K. supplier to cut its retail electricity and gas prices this year.

The company also said that it was on track to deliver the financial and operational goals for the period to March 31 set out in its last report. “The falls in wholesale energy prices, which started between July and October 2008, have been maintained and mean SSE is able to deliver its first cut in domestic energy prices since March 2007,” it said in an interim management statement. SSE said that the number of energy customers it has reached 9 million for the first time, up from 8.3 million previously.

British Gas has said that more than seven million households will benefit after it cut its standard tariff gas prices by 10%. The move, which comes into force on 19 February, will trim £84 from the average annual gas bill, it added. But observers said that even if rivals followed suit, it was “too little and too late” to make a significant difference to winter fuel bills. The firm’s price cuts will not apply to those on fixed tariffs.

British Gas, which is part of the Centrica group and trades as Scottish Gas in Scotland, raised its gas prices by a record 35% in 2008, while other companies lifted prices by more than 20%. At the end of last year the “big six” energy companies were urged to pass on lower wholesale gas prices. British Gas managing director, Phil Bentley, said the firm understood that energy prices were a “significant” part of their customers’ outgoings. Will British Gas and the like who pushed their customers for three-year fixed deals last summer help those who signed up to higher prices? “We are committed to providing the best possible prices for customers,” he said. “This price cut will go some way to helping customers manage their budgets, and we will continue to do what we can, when we can.”

Watchdog Consumer Focus welcomed the price cut, saying British Gas had “done the right thing”. But chief executive Ed Mayo added: “There are millions of dual fuel and electricity only customers that will not see a penny off their bill. “We will now turn the heat up on the other five companies that are keeping prices sky high.” It’s going to give some customers a bit of respite at a time of year when they are are going to be spending significant amount on heating their homes.