Business electricity prices, rates and tariffs

What a price normally contains

A business electricity bill can combine wholesale energy, network costs, policy costs, metering and supplier costs. Depending on the contract, some components may be bundled into the unit rate while others appear separately or change during the term.

The daily standing charge matters most when usage is low. For a high-use site, small differences in the unit rate can have a larger annual effect. That is why rates and standing charges should be converted into one estimated annual cost.

• Unit rate: pence charged for each kWh used.
• Standing charge: a daily fixed amount, whether or not energy is used.
• Contract length: how long the agreed pricing structure applies.
• Pass-through items: charges that may change if the contract does not fix them.

What the latest electricity trend shows

The UK average including CCL was 24.51p/kWh in Q2 2026, 2.0% higher than a year earlier and 80.5% higher than Q2 2021. Results varied by consumption band: very-small, very-large and extra-large users paid more year on year, while most other bands paid slightly less.

Businesses often hold fixed contracts agreed at different times. That makes the paid-price series slower to react than wholesale markets and means one quarter can contain customers on materially different contract vintages.

Average prices are not today's available deal

DESNZ publishes quarterly and annual prices paid by non-domestic consumers, split into consumption bands and shown with and without the Climate Change Levy. These figures are valuable for trends and broad context because they describe prices already paid across the market.

A current quote may differ materially from the latest official average because it relates to a particular purchasing date, duration, location, meter and consumption profile. Treat an advertised ‘from’ price as an example until the provider shows the standing charge, contract term and supply assumptions.

Deemed and out-of-contract electricity rates

A business can move onto an out-of-contract rate after an agreement ends, or onto a deemed arrangement after occupying premises without agreeing a contract. Supplier schedules are useful for checking the rate that applies to a particular account, but they are not a reliable substitute for the market-wide DESNZ average table because suppliers change them at different times.

Check the supplier's current schedule and the account status before presenting a deemed-rate comparison. If the supply can switch, compare a new contract against the complete deemed cost rather than only the unit rate.

A simple annual-cost calculation

Multiply annual kWh by the unit rate in pounds, then add 365 times the daily standing charge in pounds. Add any separate annual fees and taxes that apply. If one quote excludes a charge, flag it as unknown instead of treating it as zero.