Npower to Raise Energy Bills for 1 Million Customers
- Electricity and gas prices rising
- Blames it on wholesale costs and the Government
- Will affect customers from June
A million Npower customers will have to pay up to £64 more a year for gas and electricity bills.
The energy provider said it needed to put up bills, due to a rise in wholesale costs and Government taxes.
Gas will be rising by 4.4%, and electricity by 6.2%, the energy company has confirmed.
Related:
- British Gas to increase prices by 5.5%
- E.On hikes prices for 1 million customers
- Scottish Power ups prices for hundreds of thousands of customers
The increase will affect customers paying Npower standard variable tariff, where bills will rise from £1,166 to £1,230 from the 17th of June.
Customer who are on fixed term energy deals, on safeguard tariffs, or who have a prepayment meter, will not be affected by the price hike.
Simon Stacye, from Npower, said, “The costs that all large and medium energy suppliers are facing- particularly wholesale and policy costs which are largely outside our control- have unfortunately been on the rise for some time, and we need to reflect these in our prices.
“While existing customers who are currently on a fixed deal, have a prepayment meter, or on the Safeguard tariff, are protected from these increases, we encourage any customer who is struggling with their energy bills to contact us.”
One way that customers can save is by switching the deal that they are on, as some smaller companies are much cheaper than the Big Six.
Claire Osborne, an energy expert from USwitch.com said, “”Npower has reclaimed its top spot as the more expensive big six standard tariff.
“The average £64 rise is the equivalent of almost three weeks spending on energy.
“Npower customers have a simple choice to make- stay on a rip-off tariff and watch their bank balances shrink even further, or compare, switch and save up to £491.
“With recent wholesale costs increases, now is the time to switch and lock in a fixed deal to protect yourself against future price rises.”
Npower is the fourth of the Big Six energy suppliers to put bills up, after British Gas, E.On and Scottish Power have all announced bills will rise for customers.