Hundreds of north-east residents have received letters through the post with news of a massive hike in energy bills.
But what are you doing to help cut costs?
Mum-of-two Yekemi Otaru has been hit with a massive £240 increase in her monthly direct debit for electricity alone – due to rising costs and an error with her smart meter.
The mum-of-two and her husband are now faced with looking at cost-cutting measures as a way to reduce their electricity usage.
One of the things she is considering is limiting the amount of time her children are on games consoles.
Ms Otaru’s payments have increased from £60 a month to now £300 with them expected to rise further next month.
Soaring energy bills
Energy bills are set to soar by nearly £700 after regulator Ofgem lifted the price cap by more than 50% from April.
Consumers could be forced to pay up to £1,977 per year now, an increase from £1,271.
Ms Otaru, co-founder and director of Aberdeen-based sales and marketing consultancy Doqaru, switched to a smart meter last year with her provider Utility Warehouse in a bid to try and save money.
But it didn’t work out to plan.
Smart meters are supposed to send regular meter readings automatically to your supplier to keep your energy use up-to-date.
However, this didn’t happen with Ms Otaru and she was hit with a hefty bill on top of price increases.
She said: “In January our bill came through and it was three times more than we normally pay.
“We had changed to a smart meter in May last year but the serial number wasn’t changed until January so they had been estimating the wrong amount for months and months.
“When the number was updated the bill was backdated to May and it was absolutely ridiculous.
“For us it’s really affected us as a family.”
Cost cutting measures
Ms Otaru, mum to a 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, is now looking at ways the family can cut costs.
She said: “We have to go into our budget as a family and look for extra cash to pay this off.
“Maybe look at our savings. We try to put a certain amount aside every month but that will have to be dropped.
“As a family I feel at the moment we are doing everything we can including switching to low energy lightbulbs, turning sockets off at the wall and making sure TVs are always switched off.
“I have teenage children and sometimes they leave the Xbox on so it’s making sure they turn that off at the wall.
“We are constantly going round trying to turn off lights and things and it’s not nice.
“But the plan is to budget more round electricity.
“It would be ideal to limit use but we have phones charging, iPads and laptops.
“It’s crazy when you think about everything we use.
“Having a specific time when people can be on the Xbox and maybe charging phones is things I will think about.”
Working from home impact
Ms Otaru, who lives in a five-bedroomed home, believes the impact of Covid-19 and the new working from home culture has also led to bigger household bills.
“The energy increases have been impacted by the fact we’ve been working from home so much.
“You can see a clear spike from mid 2020 we went from an annual average of like 14,000 kw an hour to now it’s almost 18,000.
“We are at home more and rates have gone up.
“When we first switched provider it was something like 14p per kw hour and now it’s 20p.
“And we have already been warned it’ll go up by more next month.”
Prepayment meter customers could benefit
Consumer champion Martin Lewis has urged some energy prepayment meter customers to consider stockpiling before prices rise next month.
People who prepay for their gas and electricity could save hundreds of pounds by topping up ahead of the planned hikes.
If you have a non-smart prepayment meter, you won’t have to pay the new rates until you top up.
That means any credit you have will be charged at the old, lower rate – delaying the price rise and saving you money.
Mr Lewis said: “Many with older, non-smart meters on price-capped tariffs can legally ‘stockpile’ gas and electricity credit before prices shoot up.
“If you can afford to, it could mean big savings.”
Read some more top tips of saving on energy bills here and here.
