I think this article is basically making the argument that the energy cap failed because it didn't do something that no one reasonably expected it to do in the

I think this article is basically making the argument that the energy cap failed because it didn't do something that no one reasonably expected it to do in the first place. The energy cap was put in place very simply to stop energy companies from slowly raising rates on customers who don't switch, because generally people are very unlikely to switch providers and so could be exploited by the companies. That's what it was there for. Recently, it's actually done a fantastic job of protecting UK consumers from facing quick shock increases in their energy prices, delaying the impact in a way that allowed the government to take action to mitigate the real problem. Now, that's nothing to do with the fact that fundamentally energy prices are the result of long term government policy in terms of how they fund our national grid and invest in building power plants. It's got nothing to do with the price cap that the UK government failed to build (enough) Nuclear power plants and it certainly has nothing to do with the fact that the whole of Germany went insane and shut down all their Nuclear plants just in case Germany suddenly became geologically unstable as forewarned in the factual documentary Geostorm. The real problem is a combination of the fact that the UK government has failed to really tackle its long term energy strategy, and the fact that given this crisis it has chosen some really weird levers to pull to help people, choosing to give out loans and lower council taxes temporarily rather than use the actual benefit systems that they just spent the best part of a decade re-designing.