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| The CMA launched an investigation into the energy sector last year amid allegations companies were ripping off their customers. |
Profits of the Big Six energy companies increased tenfold from 2007 to 2013, fresh analysis from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shows.
The six largest suppliers earned a combined £110 million before interest and tax from their domestic energy businesses in 2007. By 2013 that had increased to more than £1.1 billion, the analysis, published on Monday night, shows.
That equates to profits of just £2.31 per household in 2007, rising to £23.71 per household in 2013.
Most energy companies made much higher profit margins on their standard variable tariffs than on fixed price deals, the competition watchdog found.
The CMA launched an investigation into the energy sector last year amid allegations companies were ripping off their customers.
Tom Greatrex MP, Labour's shadow energy minister, said: "This is yet more evidence that energy companies are increasing their profits on the back of spiralling bills for households and businesses.
"The next Labour Government will freeze energy prices until 2017, so that bills can only fall and not rise, and give the regulator the power to cut bills in time for winter."
Energy companies are however likely to point out that many of them were actually losing money on their gas supply businesses in 2007 and 2008 and that £2.32 per household was a profit margin of just 0.6 per cent before interest and tax.
The 2013 profits equated to a 3.9 per cent margin before interest and tax - still lower than the 5p-in-a-£1 target most of the suppliers claim would be justifiable.
The analysis also masks significant variation in the fortunes of each of the Big Six - British Gas, SSE, ScottishPower, EDF Energy, E.On and Npower - which has been redacted by the CMA.
Separate analysis published by Ofgem last year shows how EDF was consistently loss-making in recent years while British Gas made consistently higher profits than the rest of its peers.
Last month the CMA published initial findings showing that the vast majority of UK households had been paying £234 too much for their energy because companies charged loyal customers higher prices.
In its analysis on Monday the CMA said that most of the companies made higher gross profit margins on their variable tariffs than their fixed tariffs and questioned how this was justified.
"While the costs to serve may be higher for variable tariff customers than for fixed tariff customers, the size of the differences in gross margins would mean that the costs to serve variable tariff customers would likely need to be significantly higher than for fixed tariff customers to explain fully the higher gross margins that we found for standard variable tariff customers," it said.
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