Britain's SSE says to cut number of customers on poor value energy tariffs

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Britain's SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) said on Monday it will work to cut the number of its customers on standard variable tariffs (SVTs), which are facing a price cap from Britain's energy regulator.

SSE has the highest percentage of retail customers on SVTs of Britain's big six energy suppliers, with around 90 percent, according to regulator Ofgem.

"From the early part of next financial year (April 1) SSE (Amsterdam: UW8.AS - news) will no longer automatically roll customers onto SVTs once they have come to the end of their fixed term contracts," CEO Alistair Phillips-Davis said in a letter to Britain's energy minister Greg Clark published on Monday.

Instead SSE said it would begin moving customers onto equivalent or cheaper fixed-term tariffs for 12 months when existing fixed deals run out.

The government has asked Ofgem to cap the cost of SVTs, which cost on average 300 pounds ($393) per year more for a standard household than the cheapest available tariff.

Britain's other big energy companies are Centrica (Frankfurt: A0DK6K - news) , Iberdrola (Amsterdam: ID6.AS - news) 's Scottish Power, Innogy's npower, E.ON and EDF Energy. ($1 = 0.7632 pounds) (Reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Adrian Croft)