Britain’s energy industry is about to blow a fuse. At a stroke, 15m homes are facing one of the steepest hikes to energy bills in years. Households will be faced with some of the highest energy bills ever seen in the UK. It is far from the first price hike in a market overrun by rising costs, but it is the first that cannot be blamed on energy company greed.

“No one likes a price rise, and believe me, I don’t like announcing them,” says Dermot Nolan, Ofgem’s chief executive. It is perhaps easier to criticise energy companies for “unjustified” price hikes, and “rip-off” tariffs than it is to take charge of a £1.7bn blow to hip pockets.

This is a role the regulator takes on reluctantly. It announced last week that the savings promised by government when it legislated for a marketwide cap would be wiped out due to rising market costs. Even Nolan admits that justifying the cap against what might otherwise have been is shaky logic.

“I wish wholesale prices had not risen as much, but I can assure customers that this is a transparent and fair process,” he says.

It is cold comfort for bill payers, while for suppliers it contributes to a storm of policy decisions gathering in an existential threat over the market.