to a certain extent, yes. but obviously, in the end, you know, it s still energy consumption because it reduces really the total energy demand. yes, it can help to heat a city, but it still means you need to produce energy first somewhere. leo, the war on ukraine has resulted in an unprecedented increase in, you know, energy prices, something many of our viewers are really struggling with. just tell us what that s meant for, for e.0n and how did you adapt as a company to the massive supply and demand changes? yeah, first, it s horrific. what has it meant to us? first, we have been personally affected. e.0n is also supplying the border areas of slovakia, hungary, romania to ukraine and so we had direct interactions there and also the synchronisation of the grid in ukraine with the european, western european grid partially happened also in our supply areas. so we were on the ground affected by it.
the processes that we had established because the absolute unprecedented volatility and also the huge price level meant that obviously also we were challenged. we had, you know, we had to provide billions of additional working capital to just continue to procure the energy which was rising by a factor of 10 to 20 on the electricity and gas side here in the uk. by a factor of 10 to 20 on the electricity and gas side. here in the uk, e.0n increased prices back in april of last year by around 54% for customers on your standard variable tariff, i mean, what do you say, leo, to your customers during this cost of living crisis? we are trying to actually help them to cope with these cost increases. and we have, by the way, the same challenge that we have in the uk, in all other markets, in eastern european markets, in germany, in netherlands, sweden, wherever we are active. the challenge is we cannot sell the energy below the price
measures. let s have a reminder of what they are. typical household energy bills are being capped by the government at £2,500 a year from saturday. before that announcement, the price cap had been due to rise to just over £3,500 a year. the so called energy price guarantee will last two years. but it s important to say your bill depends on how much energy you actually use. if you use more, you pay more. the plan applies to all households in england, scotland and wales. the same level of support will be available in northern ireland. a one off £400 energy bills discount for households will also go ahead from october. but despite all of that, there s been a flurry of complaints about rising direct debits. e.0n customers were among those to raise those complaints last week, with some people tweeting their concerns. 0ne customer tweeted to say they were confused and worried because their energy bill will rise to £323 from october, having been £91 last year. marija tweeted to say
could double in october when the energy cap rises again. the mirror also leads on energy costs, reporting comments by the uk head of the firm e.0n, who has urged the prime minister to step in to help people pay their bills. the scottish daily mail reports that rail chaos will take a toll such on businesses as a third of train services are cut from timetables in scotland, taking effect from today. and this picture of man city fans celebrating at the etihad stadium makes the front of the guardian. blimey! exactly! it s after their premier league win yesterday, narrowly beating liverpool to the title. we are seeing a lot of pitch invasions recently.- we are seeing a lot of pitch invasions recently. we are seeing a lot of pitch invasions recentl . ., , invasions recently. there have been five or six in invasions recently. there have been five or six in the invasions recently. there have been five or six in the last invasions recently. there have been five or six in the last few i
now in fuel poverty. michael lewis told the bbc s sunday morning programme, recent price increases had led to i million of the firms accounts being in arrears. we expect that number to increase by about 50% in october when the price rises again. it is a very, very significant impact and that is why we have called upon the government to take more action. we do need more intervention in october and it has to be very substantial. our business reporter, simon browning, has more on the significance of what the e.on boss had to say. the words that rung out time and time again significant, intervention, government, help and poverty. these are these are big comments coming from the boss of e.0n, michael lewis. he said the word intervention four