Energy Prices Act 2022

Overview of the Act

1. The purpose of the Act is to address the negative social, economic and other impacts of the current unprecedentedly high energy prices.
2. The Act aims to do the following:
   1. Facilitate the delivery of the domestic Energy Price Guarantee for households in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to reduce the unit cost of electricity and gas.
   2. Facilitate the delivery of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for Great Britain, and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for Northern Ireland, by providing a discount on electricity and gas bills for all eligible non-domestic customers (including businesses, the voluntary sector such as charities, and the public sector such as schools and hospitals).
   3. Facilitate the delivery of the Energy Bills Support Scheme and other energy schemes in Northern Ireland.
   4. Enable payments to be made to both domestic and non-domestic alternative fuels consumers who are not able to receive support for their heating costs through either the Energy Price Guarantee or the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
   5. To provide financial assistance for domestic and non-domestic energy consumers in response to the current very high energy prices.
   6. Amend existing legislation to enable Government to offer Contracts for Difference to existing electricity generators, to provide long-term revenue certainty to generators and protect consumers from future price rises. 1
   7. Require certain generators currently receiving supernormal revenues to make a payment to a third party where revenue received for generated electricity is above a specified level, for purposes of lowering the cost of electricity for consumers, or to meet expenditure incurred by the Secretary of State in reducing such costs.
   8. Require intermediaries to pass through savings from energy price support to end users who pay their energy bill through a third party.
3. Through the powers in the Act the Government will also:
   1. Ensure that Energy Bill Relief Scheme cost reductions are passed onto heat network consumers in the form of lower heat bills.
   2. Strengthen the existing database of information held about heat networks and their consumers so that Government can provide a one-off £100 payment to households.