Philippe Commaret, EDF’s managing director for customers, told BBC Radio 4: “We face, despite the support the Government has already announced, a dramatic and catastrophic winter for our customers.”
“In January, half of the UK households might be in fuel poverty.”
Energy poverty is defined as spending over 10% of income on gas and electricity bills.
Commaret is calling on the Government to offer more support to households after the most recent predictions from Cornwall Insight showed that energy bills are on track to top £5,300 per year in April.
On Friday, regulator Ofgem will confirm the price cap for October.
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Consumers on default tariffs paying by direct debit will, on average, see an increase of £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 per year. Consumers who use prepayment meters, meanwhile, can expect to see an increase of £708 from £1,309 to £2,017, on average.
The increase is set to impact around 22 million households in the UK that are on a default standard variable tariff, over which the price cap sets a limit. The new price cap, which comes into effect on April 1 and will remain in place for six months, is the highest since the cap on energy bills was introduced.
Meanwhile, across the channel, the French government is set to force state energy giant EDF to take an €8.4 billion hit to protect households from soaring energy costs by limiting bill increases to 4% this year.
On Friday, the EDF lost a fifth of its market value after the French government laid out its plan to cap rising energy bills. The government’s measures include forcing the energy giant to sell electricity generated by its fleet of nuclear reactors to rival home energy suppliers at prices significantly below the current record-high market prices.
Last week, Pod Point announced it is looking at a premium listing with a free float of 25% minimum. It is expected that the float will raise approximately £120 million, with the offer comprising the sale of new shares in addition to some by existing shareholders such as Legal and General Capital Investments. EDF, which owns a 78% stake in the company, will keep a holding of over 50% while Legal and General will maintain only a minority shareholding.
Barclays Bank and Bank of America will stand as joint global coordinators, and as joint bookrunners along with Numis Securities.
Pod Point, established in 2009, is currently the UK’s largest provider of home charging points for electric vehicles and the second largest of charging for workplaces. The company predicts that by 2040, 25 million electric vehicle charging stations will be needed across the country.
