Business Energy Market Update: April 2025

Day ahead prices eased slightly from their positions at the start of the month with both gas and electricity shedding 10% percent of their value as warmer weather saw demand soften. This trend extended into prices for delivery this summer, although planned maintenance of Norwegian facilities beginning later this week and continuing throughout the coming months has done much to keep prices higher than they might otherwise have been.

Further out prices are starting to rise as uncertainty continues over the likelihood of a Ukrainian ceasefire and the effect of Donald Trump’s threats of further tariffs begins to exert some upward pressure. In addition, concerns over gas storage levels across the EU may also keep gas prices higher in the near term.

Many of you will be familiar with OFGEM’s drive to rollout Smart meters across the nation and they are now present in nearly 70% of premises. The impending move to market wide half hourly settlement where energy consumption for the nation can be monitored in near real time means many more meters need to be changed over the next two years to keep this vital improvement to the way our energy system works on track.

Smart meters have not been met with the popularity many experts initially expected however, in some cases users have found smart meters are slow to be installed, appointments are not kept or the installation fails, meters are commissioned incorrectly and in some cases simply don’t connect to the network to send readings.

With adoption rates still below target and confidence in the technology low, OFGEM has announced a fresh consultation into ways in which things can be improved. Ofgem believes future upgrades are necessary to guarantee smart meters operate as intended and that customers receive the service they expect.

Some of the changes proposed will see compensation offered where Smart meters are not installed quickly or a fault means the appointment doesn’t go ahead. Other measures may see suppliers mandated to put resolution plans in place within five working days to fix faulty meters and further compensation if problems persist beyond 90 days.

This is a welcome step forward and I sure many of you will agree, long overdue. As an energy consultancy we are often asked to step in and help when things go wrong with smart meters. That’s not to say we aren’t fans of them as the technology can be very useful when it is working properly, but we are glad OFGEM have sat up and taken notice of the issues some of us face when confronted with a smart meter gone awry!

If your smart meter is misbehaving or if you have any other energy or utility related queries you think we may be able to help with, give us a call. The team are always on hand to help out!