Post: GB electricity prices on the up, says BEIS

GB electricity prices on the up, says BEIS

Average non-domestic sector electricity prices, excluding the cost of the Climate Change Levy (CCL) continued to increase in Q1 2021, the government has informed.

Published on 29 June, the latest energy trends and prices documents showed that the average price of electricity in the non-domestic sector was 14p/kWh – up 2.5% on year ago levels.

Price rises were seen in all sizes of consumer apart from the large (20,000 – 69,999MWh) and very large (70,000 – 150,000MWh) bands, which saw falls of 1.3% and 3%, respectively. Extra large users (defined as >150,000MWh) saw the highest increase at 6.1%. In addition, the cost of the CCL has increased by 2.7%.

Energy consumption in the first quarter of 2021 was low as COVID-19 restrictions continued to reduce demand. Energy requirements for industrial use were down 2.1% on the same period last year, and demand from other end users (e.g., shops, restaurants, offices, and public buildings) also decreased by 4.6%.

For generation, BEIS reported total electricity production of 83.5TWh in Q1 21’, which was a 4.2% lower than year ago levels. This was in line with the 3% decrease in demand over the same period. Renewables generation was 34.7TWh in Q1 21’, down 16% from  Q1 20’, despite small increases in capacity.

Fossil fuels generated 34.7TWh in the first quarter of 2021, matching generation from renewables. This was a 15% increase compared to year ago levels as gas generators had make up for reduced nuclear and renewable generation. Gas remained the fuel with the highest generation at 31.9TWh and increased by 19% compared to the same period of 2020. Coal generation continued to decline, falling by 27% between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021.

Separately, BEIS published a comparison of UK electricity prices with other EU-14 countries. It found that the average industrial electricity prices, including taxes, rose in the UK and in most of the EU-14 countries on the same period in 2019 for the medium consumers. The UK price rose by 2.3%, while the average price increase in the EU-14 was 4.8%. The UK prices for medium consumers, excluding taxes and levies, were the second highest in the EU-14 plus UK group. UK prices were 27% above the estimated EU-14 median price.

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