The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheme documents for domestic electricity and gas consumers in Great Britain were updated on 27 September 2023 to allow the scheme to provide a discount via standing charges1. The change was recorded in the update history of the government's EPG scheme documents page, which holds the technical documents for energy suppliers and scheme administrators1.
The page states that the EPG documents are the agreements between the government, energy suppliers and scheme administrators that enable delivery of the scheme to households across the UK, and that the documents were intended to be formally recognised by Parliament through regulations laid under the Energy Prices Act1. The Great Britain electricity scheme document runs to 81 pages and the gas document to 86 pages; both were later reissued in November 2023 versions1.
"The EPG scheme documents for domestic electricity and gas consumers in Great Britain have been updated to allow the EPG to provide a discount via standing charges to consumers"
The same page records that Northern Ireland scheme documents were added on 2 November 2022, and that a link to ministerial directions for domestic energy consumers in Northern Ireland was added on 4 January 20231. The Northern Ireland electricity and gas scheme documents are separate files from the Great Britain ones1. The page was first published on 31 October 2022 and last updated on 29 December 2023, when the Great Britain gas and electricity documents were replaced with November 2023 versions1. It was withdrawn on 13 June 2025, with the note that the scheme is now closed1.
| Date | Update recorded |
|---|---|
| 31 October 2022 | First published |
| 2 November 2022 | Scheme documents for Northern Ireland added |
| 4 January 2023 | Link added to Northern Ireland ministerial directions |
| 27 September 2023 | Great Britain documents updated to allow a discount via standing charges |
| 29 December 2023 | Great Britain documents updated to November 2023 versions |
| 13 June 2025 | Publication withdrawn; scheme closed |
Why it matters for households
A standing charge is the fixed daily amount on an electricity or gas bill, paid regardless of how much energy is used, and it is the part of a bill that standing charge reform debates tend to focus on. Delivering EPG support through that fixed element rather than through the unit rate changes how the discount lands on a household: a low-usage home receives the same daily reduction as a high-usage one, whereas a unit-rate discount scales with consumption. The scheme documents do not set out the size of any standing charge discount, and no figure for it appears in the published update note1.
The EPG itself is a closed scheme, and its history is set out in the Energy Price Guarantee guide. The wider relationship between fixed charges and a household's exposure to wholesale prices is covered under energy bills and energy independence.
What happens next
The publication was withdrawn on 13 June 2025 and the scheme is closed1. No further updates to the scheme documents have been reported.