The deadline for residents to accept offers on a city council scheme to save money on their energy bills has been extended following a short delay in emails and letters being sent out.

Householders who signed up for the Ready to Switch initiative are set to make some great savings on their yearly gas and electricity spend, with some residents already reporting offers that would save them over £250 a year. Dual fuel monthly direct debit customers are set to save an average of £149 on their current bill, with the average savings across all tariffs standing at £122.

In total, 1,787 Peterborough households signed up to save on their energy bills. Across the entire scheme, which was run in partnership with 12 other councils, 21,000 people registered.

An auction with energy providers took place late last month where the Ready to Switch scheme was combined with a similar initiative being run in Greater Manchester. This made it the biggest council collective energy switching auction in the UK with over 56,000 households coming together to save on their energy bills.

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A total of three energy suppliers won contracts:

Scottish Power will be offering to supply all dual fuel (electricity and gas) customers. Those paying an online monthly direct debit will save on average £149 a year, paper billing customers will see an average yearly saving of £78 and for prepayment dual fuel customers they will save an average of £54

Scottish Power will also be offering to supply electricity only prepayment customers, with households set to save on average £44 a year

Ovo Energy will be offering to supply energy to online electricity only customers, with those registered saving an average of £98 a year

Co-operative Energy will be offering to supply electricity only paper billing customers, with those registered saving an average of £77 a year

Personal offer letters and emails are now being sent to each registered city householder explaining exactly how much they will be saving. With the exception of the offer to pre-payment customers where the tariff is variable, all the offers are a fixed 12 month contract.

The deadline to accept an offer from Ovo Energy will now be Monday 4 March 2013 and for offers from Scottish Power and Co-operative Energy the deadline has been extended to Friday 8 March 2013. If householders decide to switch to their new deal they won't have to do anything as the energy company will take care of the whole process.

(CD/GK)