Ofgem sets the price cap every six months by calculating how much it costs an efficient supplier to provide gas and/or electricity to a customer.34 Ofgem told us that, when setting the cap, it had to reflect the cost at which suppliers buy the energy in the wholesale market. It explained that in winter 2021–22 prices were six times their normal level, and by the summer of 2022 were ten times the normal level.35 In May 2022 Ofgem estimated that the price cap for a typical customer paying by direct debit would rise to around £2,800 a year in October 2022, from £1,971 in April 2022. Ofgem told us that, as a result of energy prices continuing to increase, it expected prices to rise even further.36 In August 2022 Ofgem announced that the energy price cap would increase to £3,549 per year from 1 October 2022. Ofgem warned that while the market remained too volatile to allow it to make projections, the market for gas in winter means that prices could get “significantly worse through 2023”.37