Timeyin Akerele

Between pre-crisis, so say 2019, and now, basically the price cap's gone up almost 50%.

We can't guarantee people get low bills.

What we can do is guarantee fair bills.

Yeah, of course.

So, Ofgem is Britain's independent energy regulator, and we basically exist to help protect energy consumers, and that gives us a number of important roles.

We regulate the retail market on the one side, and we also regulate the networks that provide the gas and electricity into people's homes and businesses.

And there's quite a lot within that.

And on the retail side, we set the price cap.

A lot of people will have heard of the price cap, and we can talk more about that.

But we also make sure that the suppliers adhere to a set of rules and principles in order to deliver good service to customers and treat customers fairly.

And then on the network side, we run a regime that approves the investment they need to make and tries to deliver that at least cost.

So the regulatory regime we run enables them to invest billions of pounds, but at relatively low cost of capital.

So it keeps the cost down for consumers.

There are other bits of infrastructure that we're also now taking responsibility for regulating in a similar way.

So, for example, around hydrogen, running a sort of similar cost regulation regime for nuclear going forward, the size well plant, things like that.

And then above all of that, we try to just make sure that the system works efficiently.

And in that area, for example, we're promoting the development of more flexibility in the electricity sector.

Because if people can use more energy when it's cheaper, for example, when the wind is blowing, sun is shining, then the cost of the whole system can come down.

So that's the overall goal and the main mission for Ofgem.

The main challenge for us over the last few years, I think it's fair to say, was the energy crisis last time.