Profit margins at the big six energy providers have hit the highest level on record, according to the regulator, Ofgem, in data that comes just weeks after British Gas raised some prices by 12.5%. The Ofgem data reveals that the average pre-tax margin among the major power companies rose to 4.48% in 2016, up from 4.15% the year before and just 0.89% in 2009, when the regulator began collecting figures. The data was first released in July but Ofgem has only been able to present a complete picture now after the inclusion of figures from all of the big six. Centrica, which owns British Gas, enjoyed consistently the highest margins, running at 7.18% in 2016. SSE and E.ON were the second most profitable, both on a margin of 6.95%. Centrica provoked uproar this month when it raised prices for 3 million customers, which the chief executive of its consumer business, Mark Hodges, blamed on “an underlying increase in policy and transmission costs”.
Guardian 31st Aug 2017 read more »
Britain’s second largest energy supplier has steadily grown the profits it makes from supplying energy to households for a third year in a row despite mounting political pressure to keep bills low. The energy regulator has revealed that SSE is the only Big Six supplier to have grown its pre-tax margins every year since 2013, even as the debate over energy bills and profits has heated up. The steady gains have ballooned SSE’s profit measure for supplying 7.7m homes with gas and power from 3.94pc in 2013 to 6.95pc last year, rapidly outpacing the 4.48pc aggregate for the the Big Six last year.
Telegraph 31st Aug 2017 read more »
