OVO pricing principles

How do you work out what to charge for gas and electricity?

We’re constantly watching wholesale prices, and what it costs to supply energy to your home, to see if we can pass any savings onto you. However, this also means that, sometimes, we have to put our prices up too. This cost reflective pricing sits at the heart of our promise to you – that your deal will always be fair, transparent and as competitive as possible.

Do you charge exit or termination fees?

Yes. We charge exit fees on our fixed rate plans but not on our variable rate plan, Simpler Energy. If you want to find out if they apply to your plan, please check your contract. If it does include exit fees, you may be liable to pay these charges if you leave your fixed plan early, or downgrade your plan at any point during your contract. The amount will be £30 per fuel (including VAT). 

Why does OVO charge early exit fees?

We’ve always promised to give our customers the best price that we can, and we charge early exit fees to ensure that we can continue to do this.

When customers join OVO on one of our fixed plans we buy their energy for the year in advance. However, not knowing whether customers will stay with us for the full length of their contract and use the energy we’ve bought for them creates uncertainty for us.

If a customer chooses to leave us before the end of their contract, we’re left with unsold energy, so we’ve had to protect ourselves against these possible losses by raising our prices.

To make sure we’re always able to offer our customers the very best deal we can, we charge an early exit fee for all customers that choose to leave our fixed plans before the end of their contract.

What happens if your prices change?

When we change our prices, we do our best to make sure you hear about it by updating our website.

If you’re on a fixed tariff it doesn’t matter whether wholesale market energy costs rise or fall – your unit prices and standing charges will stay the same for the duration of your plan. 

If you're on a variable plan your prices might rise or fall in line with wholesale energy prices. But we'll always give you at least 10 days' notice – and the choice to switch to a fixed price plan – if your prices are set to rise. 

If you’ve got an EV bundle or Green Energy add-on, a rise or fall in wholesale energy prices won’t affect them, as they’re priced separately to our plans. However, their prices still could change for different reasons – please see the Green add-on T&Cs and EV bundle T&Cs to find out more.

When was your last price increase or decrease?

On Tuesday 23 February 2021, we increased the headline price of our 2 Year Fixed Energy and Better Energy plans.

For Better Energy, this was an increase of 4.4% for profile class 1 (single rate energy meters) and 5.7% for profile class 2 (Economy 7).

For 2 Year Fixed Energy, this was an increase of 0.8% for profile class 1, and 1% for profile class 2.

On Wednesday 24 February 2021, we decreased the headline price of our Better Smart Energy and OVO Member Special plans.

The headline price of Better Smart for profile class has decreased by 5.3% and has decreased by 5% for PC2.

The price of OVO Member Special for PC1 has decreased by 0.9% and has decreased by 0.7% for PC2.

We’ve made this change due to changes in wholesale commodity prices and the conditions within the energy market.

What does it mean for me if your prices change?

It doesn’t matter whether wholesale market energy costs rise or fall – your unit prices and standing charges will stay the same for the duration of your fixed plan.

We’re as honest and open as possible about our prices. We do our best to keep them low and stable, but sometimes wholesale market energy prices change so much that we have to change our prices too. We might also have to change our prices because of changes in the law or because some of our other costs have gone up.

When we change our prices, we do our best to make sure you hear about it by updating our website.

If you need more help

There’s help available in the OVO Forum. And if you don't find the answers you need, feel free to ask a question. One of our forum users will be happy to help!