Home energy

About 1.7 million Bulb customers will see gas and electricity bills rise by an average 6.5% from next month, making its standard credit tariff just 1% cheaper than the price cap – in other words, it'll be mightily expensive. But most can beat the hikes and save £200+/yr by switching to a cheaper deal. 

Over 250,000 customers of the defunct gas and electricity supplier Green Network Energy (GNE) are still waiting for EDF Energy to set up their accounts two months after it was appointed as their new supplier, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal. EDF's warned it'll take until the end of May to finish transferring all customers – here's the latest on what's happening and your rights. 

Energy firm Utilita has agreed to pay a redress package of £500,000 after overcharging almost 40,000 of its prepayment customers. 

The competition watchdog has approved the sale of big six energy supplier SSE's household energy business to Ovo Energy, meaning 3.5 million SSE customers are set to be moved over to Ovo after January 2020.

Northern Ireland's largest energy supplier, Power NI, is to hike electricity prices by 6.1%, meaning the typical bill for those on its standard tariff will jump by £35/year.

The competition watchdog has called for the prepayment price cap to stay in place after 2020 due to the slow roll-out of smart meters – but customers could pay more under the cap when calculation methods change. 

Small energy firm Avro Energy has been banned from taking on new customers because it hasn't joined the national smart meter network.

Small energy supplier Eversmart Energy has apologised after 1,000 customers were sent an email offering an incentive for leaving a five-star review.

Energy supplier First Utility has been renamed Shell Energy, and customers will now have 100% renewable electricity. 

A 'misleading' radio advert which claimed installing a smart meter could save consumers an average of 354 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year has been banned.