The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero issued Directions No. 1 under Section 22 of the Energy Prices Act 2022 in December 2022, covering domestic electricity and gas suppliers in Northern Ireland1. The directions were published on GOV.UK on 4 January 2023, with the two instruments dated 19 December 20221.
The directions required domestic electricity and gas suppliers in Northern Ireland to seek agreement to make tariff changes on days other than the first day of a quarter1. In practice this tied price movements in the Northern Ireland market to quarter start dates, rather than allowing suppliers to move rates at other points in the year.
The measure sat alongside the Energy Price Guarantee, the scheme that capped unit rates for domestic consumers. The government's own account of the directions is brief:
"In December the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero issued Directions (No.1) under Section 22 of the Energy Prices Act 2022. These directions required domestic electricity and gas suppliers in Northern Ireland to seek agreement to make tariff changes on days other than the first day of a quarter."
Directions No. 1 were later revoked. On 23 June 2023 the Secretary of State issued Directions No. 2 for domestic gas and for domestic electricity consumers in Northern Ireland, and these were published on 13 July 20231. The stated reason was that the EPG support rate had been notified as 0p/kWh in Northern Ireland for the next quarter, so the justification for keeping the restriction had fallen away1. The replacement directions allow domestic electricity and gas suppliers in Northern Ireland to make tariff changes on days other than the first day of a quarter1.
| Instrument | Date | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Directions No. 1, electricity | 19 December 2022 | Required suppliers to seek agreement for tariff changes on days other than the first day of a quarter1 |
| Directions No. 1, gas | 19 December 2022 | Same requirement for gas suppliers1 |
| Directions No. 2, electricity and gas | 23 June 2023 | Allow tariff changes on days other than the first day of a quarter; revoke Directions No. 11 |
Why it matters for households
Northern Ireland's domestic energy market runs separately from Great Britain's, with its own suppliers, its own tariffs and its own bills arrangements1. A direction that fixes when tariffs may change affects the timing of any price movement a household sees, not just its size. Under Directions No. 1, a supplier wanting to pass through a change had to seek agreement to do so outside the first day of a quarter, which limited how quickly rates could respond to wholesale costs in either direction.
For a household, the practical link to energy independence is indirect but real: the rules governing when a supplier can reprice determine how closely a home's bill tracks the cost of the energy it uses, and how much notice a household effectively gets of a change. The revocation of Directions No. 1 removed that timing constraint, at a point when the EPG support rate in Northern Ireland had been notified as 0p/kWh for the following quarter1.
What happens next
Directions No. 2, dated 23 June 2023 and published 13 July 2023, are the operative instruments and revoke Directions No. 11. No further directions are described in the published record.