UK Business Energy Price Index (2004–2026)
Built from the official DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices survey (tables 3.4.1–3.4.2, prices including CCL, excluding VAT). Latest data: Q1 2026 (provisional), published 30 June 2026. Next official update: 29 September 2026.
This page tracks what UK businesses have actually paid for electricity and gas every year since 2004 — through the long quiet 2010s, the 2021–2023 energy crisis, and the uneven recovery since. It is the series we use to sanity-check every quote and forecast on this site.
Key findings
- Average business electricity was 24.14p/kWh in Q1 2026 — down about 11% from the 2023 annual peak (27.2p), but still roughly 60% above 2021 (15.1p) and almost six times the 2004 average (4.2p).
- Average business gas was 5.17p/kWh in Q1 2026 — down 19% from the 2023 peak (6.4p) but still about 68% above 2021 (3.1p).
- The small-business premium is at a record. The smallest consumers (under 20 MWh a year) paid 45% more per kWh than the all-business average in Q1 2026. Through 2021–2023 that premium was only ~19% — it has more than doubled since, because falling wholesale prices reached big negotiated contracts first.
- Prices for the smallest businesses have not fallen at all: their average was 32.3p in 2023, 34.9p in 2025 and 35.0p in Q1 2026 — a new high.
Business electricity prices by year (p/kWh, including CCL)
| Year | Very small (<20 MWh/yr) | Medium (2–20 GWh/yr) | All-business average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13.4 | 10.0 | 10.5 |
| 2016 | 12.8 | 10.0 | 10.5 |
| 2017 | 14.0 | 10.5 | 10.9 |
| 2018 | 15.5 | 11.5 | 11.7 |
| 2019 | 16.7 | 12.6 | 12.9 |
| 2020 | 17.2 | 13.3 | 13.8 |
| 2021 | 18.0 | 14.3 | 15.1 |
| 2022 | 23.8 | 20.2 | 20.9 |
| 2023 (peak) | 32.3 | 29.0 | 27.2 |
| 2024 | 32.3 | 28.7 | 26.3 |
| 2025 | 34.9 | 25.9 | 24.3 |
| Q1 2026 | 35.0 | 25.0 | 24.1 |
Business gas prices by year (p/kWh, including CCL)
| Year | Very small (<278 MWh/yr) | All-business average |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4.30 | 2.75 |
| 2016 | 4.05 | 2.37 |
| 2017 | 3.96 | 2.17 |
| 2018 | 4.04 | 2.41 |
| 2019 | 4.52 | 2.48 |
| 2020 | 4.87 | 2.47 |
| 2021 | 4.84 | 3.07 |
| 2022 | 7.42 | 5.30 |
| 2023 (peak) | 9.69 | 6.40 |
| 2024 | 8.95 | 5.67 |
| 2025 | 8.29 | 5.29 |
| Q1 2026 | 7.48 | 5.17 |
The small-business premium
How much more the smallest electricity consumers pay per kWh than the all-business average. Small sites carry higher per-unit network and metering costs, but the recent widening is mostly a contract story: businesses that renegotiated captured 2024–2026 wholesale falls, while small sites on rolled-over, deemed or out-of-contract terms did not.
| Year | Very small (p/kWh) | Average (p/kWh) | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18.0 | 15.1 | +19% |
| 2023 | 32.3 | 27.2 | +19% |
| 2024 | 32.3 | 26.3 | +23% |
| 2025 | 34.9 | 24.3 | +43% |
| Q1 2026 | 35.0 | 24.1 | +45% |
If your business is on the wrong side of that gap, start with our guide to escaping deemed and out-of-contract rates, then benchmark any renewal against the current averages on our business electricity prices page.
Get a business energy quote
Go straight to Octopus Energy for Business — switching businesses currently get a £75 account credit. No broker call-backs, works for micro-businesses and multi-site.
Methodology & reuse
Figures are volume-weighted average prices paid by non-domestic consumers in the United Kingdom, including the Climate Change Levy and excluding VAT, from the DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices series (tables 3.4.1–3.4.2). Annual figures are calendar-year averages; Q1 2026 is provisional. Size bands are DESNZ definitions (electricity “very small” = under 20 MWh/year; gas “very small” = under 278 MWh/year). The CCL main rate rose to 0.801p/kWh for both fuels on 1 April 2026.
Journalists and researchers: you are welcome to reuse these tables with a link to this page as the source. We refresh the index each quarter when DESNZ publishes new data.
More: all business energy guides · 2026 unit-rate forecast · winter gas forecast
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