Ofgem said it wants to give consumers more choice on how they pay standing charges, with the plans set to allow households to pay the costs as part of their unit rate by lowering the daily fixed amount. If given the go-ahead, the new tariffs could be available by the end of January. Standing charges are applied daily, regardless of how much energy the customer uses, and are used to cover the cost of supplying energy to homes and businesses. They also cover the costs of building new network infrastructure and keeping the power on when energy suppliers go bust. “After examining all the options available to us, we believe that the right way forward is to require all major suppliers to offer at least one tariff with a lower standing charge.