The new government measures consist of:
Voluntary long term fixed contracts: offered to existing low-carbon generators not on fixed‑price contracts - covering around a third of Britain’s power supply. The government claims this will help protect families and businesses from higher bills when gas prices spike, with contracts offered only where they deliver clear value for money for consumers; and
An updated Electricity Generators Levy: immediate action to tax excess profits through the Electricity Generator Levy by raising the rate from 45% to 55%, ensuring an increased proportion of the extraordinary revenues generated when the gas price spikes is available to the government to support businesses and households with the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East on the cost of living.
Speaking at the Good Growth Foundation, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband set out further measures to help cut bills for families and deliver more clean, homegrown power.
He confirmed bigger grants for households using expensive fuels like heating oil and LPG - which are not protected by the energy price cap.
And grants to install heat pumps under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme will rise from £7,500 to £9,000 for these homes.
Mr Miliband said he was also providing an additional £100million of funding for the Social Housing Fund, subject to final approvals, to support the delivery of up to a total of 57,000 solar installations for households this financial year.
Through the Social Housing Fund and social housing regulations in the ‘Warm Homes Plan’, the government says this will help households cut bills by hundreds of pounds and support up to a million homes reach EPC C.
The government said it was also driving forward plans to massively expand renewables using brownfield land, industrial sites and railway sites, hosting solar panels and wind turbines, unlocking up to 10 GW of capacity and powering the equivalent of around 5 million homes.
Streamlining outdated rules to unblock the grid and speed up clean, homegrown power, will involve a huge overhaul of planning, land access and grid connection processes, cutting delays for essential grid upgrades and renewables, and exploring new routes for developers to build and connect their projects faster.
Other government plans aim to make it easier for people to switch to cheaper electric transport and heating, by making EV chargers, solar panels and heat pumps easier to install for renters, flat-dwellers and households without a driveway. You can read the government press release here