Nine firms are seeking permission from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to appeal against Ofgem’s price controls for energy companies.
The companies are appealing against changes to the electricity and gas transmission, and gas distribution, licences which set out how much energy companies can charge their customers. The changes are a result of the RIIO-2 price control decision issued in December 2020 by Ofgem. The RIIO-2 price control covers a 5-year period, which runs from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2026.
The appeals largely focus on the allowed return on investment and the way Ofgem calculated the costs the companies would spend on maintaining and investing in their networks over the next 5 years.
The CMA has 14 working days to decide whether to grant the firms permission to appeal. However, the timeline can be extended to 20 working days if the CMA needs to consider any submission from Ofgem regarding the applications for permission to appeal.
If permission is granted, the CMA will then have 6 months to come to a final view on the appeals.
Seven of the nine firms have drawn extensively on the CMA’s PR19 Provisional Findings, together with other documents submitted by key stakeholders involved in its current inquiry into appeals by four water companies against Ofwat 2019 Price Determinations on their AMP7 business plans.
The nine firms now seeking permission to appeal Ofgem’s price control are:
- Cadent Gas Ltd
- National Grid Electricity Transmission plc
- National Grid Gas plc
- Northern Gas Networks Ltd
- Southern Gas Networks plc and Scotland Gas Networks plc (joint application)
- Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc
- SP Transmission plc
- Wales & West Utilities Ltd