Ofgem published one price cap for July and the press published two numbers. Both are correct, which is the sort of clarity the energy market specialises in.
The short version: the July–September cap is £1,862 measured the way every previous cap was measured, and £1,663 measured the new way. The unit rates — the thing you actually pay — are identical in both. What changed is Ofgem's assumption about how much energy a "typical" household uses.
The benchmark moved
From 1 July, Ofgem updated its Typical Domestic Consumption Values to reflect that households now use about 7% less electricity and 17% less gas than the 2023 assumptions. Multiply the same unit rates by a smaller assumed usage and the headline "typical bill" shrinks. Hence £1,663.
Compare like-for-like with April's £1,641 cap, though, and July is £1,862 — a 13% rise driven by wholesale gas costs. Your bill went up. The headline went down. Both facts are true and only one of them affects your bank account.
The rates that matter
On a standard variable tariff paying by direct debit from 1 July: electricity is 26.11p/kWh with a 57.19p daily standing charge; gas is 7.33p/kWh with a 29.04p daily standing charge. Regional variation applies as always.
Gas took the bigger hit — roughly 24% up against about 5% for electricity. If your heating is electric, or heading that way, July treated you comparatively gently.
What to do with this information
Two things. First, if a comparison site quotes savings "against the cap", check which cap. A deal that "beats £1,862" and a deal that "beats £1,663" are being graded against different exams.
Second, 26.11p/kWh is the number to hold in your head for any solar or smart-tariff payback maths. Every kWh a plug-in kit generates now displaces a more expensive one. We've rerun the numbers.
The October cap lands on 26 August. Here's what to expect. If you're switching supplier anyway, Octopus's smart tariffs remain the widest range on the market and switching via our referral link adds £50 credit for you (and, transparently, £50 for us).
