Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer of 10 April 2013, Official Report, column 1119W, on energy prices, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) wholesale and (b) retail cost of (i) electricity and (ii) gas in 2013.

The average GB wholesale electricity price in 2013 was 4.98 pence/kWh.[1] For gas, it was 2.32 pence/kWh.[2]

These prices do not necessarily reflect the costs faced by energy suppliers, who typically buy their energy over a period of time using forward contracts – a practice known as hedging. The particular hedging strategies employed by different suppliers are commercially confidential and not known to Government.

[1] Source: data received by DECC from commercial price reporting companies

[2] Ibid