The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) ended in June 2023, closing the period in which the government paid energy suppliers to hold prices below the level they would otherwise have reached under the price cap1. The EPG was introduced in October 2022 and kept prices constant until June 20231. From that point, the energy price cap again set the maximum prices most households pay.
The cap, formally the Default Tariff Cap, came into force at the beginning of 20191. Ofgem revises it each quarter, setting maximum prices for a unit of energy and daily standing charges for customers in each energy supply region of Great Britain, with separate caps for gas and electricity1. It applies where a customer has not signed up for a fixed-term contract with their supplier, and it does not limit annual bills, which depend on how much energy a customer uses1.
The EPG interrupted a steep run of cap increases. Ofgem announced that the cap would increase in April 2022 by 54% from the annual equivalent of £1,215 to £1,877, and the increase in the next cap, for the fourth quarter of 2022, was planned to be a further 80%1. Customers were protected from the October 2022 increase by the EPG, which limited price increases to 26%, with the government paying suppliers the difference between the cap and the EPG1. The level of the cap fell for much of the following year and has subsequently varied between £1,640 and £1,8601.
The only time the price cap did not apply was at the height of the energy crisis, from October 2022 to June 2023, when the government paid energy suppliers to keep prices down under the EPG1.
"The EPG was introduced in October 2022 and kept prices constant until June 2023."
Unit prices remain well above their pre-crisis levels. The latest unit prices for gas are around 120% higher than their mid-2021 levels, while electricity prices are 38% higher1. In May 2026, gas prices were 14% higher than their January 2020 level in real terms, and electricity prices were 13% higher1.
| Period | What set the maximum price |
|---|---|
| January 2019 to September 2022 | Energy price cap1 |
| October 2022 to June 2023 | Energy Price Guarantee1 |
| From June 2023 | Energy price cap1 |
Why it matters for households
For the eight months of the EPG, the maximum price a household paid for a unit of gas or electricity was set by government support rather than by the cap, and the government covered the gap to suppliers1. When the scheme closed, that support stopped and the quarterly cap again became the binding limit on default tariffs1. Because the cap sets unit rates and standing charges rather than a total bill, a household's costs still depend on how much energy it uses1. The price cap history shows how the headline level has moved since, and the Energy Price Guarantee page covers the closed scheme itself.
The ending of the EPG also changed the arithmetic for households generating their own power. A solar and battery installer noted at the time that the guarantee was "due to come to a close in June", after which "our energy bills will once again be subject to Ofgem's price cap", with energy prices "double what they were in 2020"2. That source also described time-of-use tariffs that tie import and export rates together, with rates varying by window and by area, and noted that such tariffs can carry a higher daily standing charge than import-only tariffs, usually by a few pence2. Those rates are one supplier's published figures from May 2023 and are not the capped rates2.
What happens next
No further dated steps are set out in these sources. The cap continues to be revised each quarter by Ofgem1.
Sources2 cited
- Domestic energy prices: In short - House of Commons Library, commonslibrary.parliament.uk
- Octopus Flux, blog.spiritenergy.co.uk