Ed Miliband is being urged to make a change to the way customers are charged for energy in the UK, which proponents suggest could save households as much as £240 a year.
The Energy Secretary has been told to consider regional or “zonal” fees, which would mean prices varied by area in order to reflect what it costs to produce and supply power there.
The method is supported by the UK’s largest supplier, Octopus Energy.
The firm claims that it could bring bills down by hundreds of pounds in every region of Great Britain, with the average household saving “anywhere between £11 to £240 each year”.
Research has shown, the company adds, that businesses’ savings would be “significant” – up to a 65% reduction in wholesale energy costs if they used energy “exactly as normal”.
This could increase to as much as more than 99% if they “flexed” their energy use to the “cheapest, greenest” times during the day.
However, the boss of SSE disagrees, saying that “zonal” charging would be unfair.
The firm’s chief executive, Alistair Phillips-Davies, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: “Personally, I’m baffled as to why we are having a discussion about zonal pricing.
“Zonal pricing is a postcode lottery for both people looking to build massive new infrastructure, and work out what their costs might be, and also for consumers in terms of having possibily huge differential prices across the country.
“What we need to do is to give certainty to people about how that market operates.”
Mr Miliband is reportedly set to make a call as to the future of the UK’s charging system within months.
The Government said in December that it will plan an energy system “based on what the country needs”.
The Department for Energy and Net Zero added: “The plan sets out bold measures to get more homegrown clean power to people.
“These include: cleaning up a dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects and ending the ‘first-come-first served’ system; speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure; and expanding the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected.”
