months while it is in place. In September 2018, Ofgem proposed that the initial level of the "default tariff price cap" would mean that energy suppliers would not be allowed to charge more than £1,136 a year for a typical dual fuel customer paying by direct debit, and that this would save the 11 million British households on default or standard variable tariffs an average of £75 a year on their gas and electricity bills. The price of the cap is set for each unit (kWh) of gas and electricity used, plus a daily standing charge, so that it varies with consumption. Ofgem designed the cap level to take into account several factors: wholesale energy costs (how much a supplier has to pay to get the gas and electricity to supply households with energy), energy network costs (the regional costs of building, maintaining and operating the pipes and wires that carry energy across the country), policy costs (the costs related to government social and environmental schemes to save energy, reduce emissions and encourage take-up of renewable energy), operating costs (the costs incurred by suppliers to deliver billing and metering services, including smart metering), payment method uplift allowance (the additional costs incurred through billing customers with different payment methods), headroom allowance (allowing suppliers to manage uncertainty in their costs), the return on suppliers’ investments, and VAT (5% tax added to the level of the tariff). In November 2018, Ofgem finished its consultation and published its decision that the first level of the cap would be set at £1,137 a year for a typical direct debit dual fuel bill in November 2018. This came into force from 1 January 2019. At its initial level, the cost of electricity for those on default tariffs was capped at 17p per kWh, and gas was capped at 4p per kWh. Dual fuel users would pay no more than £177 a year for the standing charge, electricity-only users would pay no more than £83, and gas users £94. The first change in the level of the price cap was announced in February 2019, with the cap rising by £117 for typical direct debit dual fuel bills from 1 April 2019. In October 2020, the government extended the energy price cap by a year, until at least the end of 2021. In the 2020s, several consumer-facing suppliers went into liquidation including Bulb Energy, Avro Energy, Green Supplier