Protect Your Business Against Energy Price Increases
The protection against price increases is one of the compelling reasons to get a solar energy system, so if you are interested in finding out more start on the solar journey today.
One of the main advantages of solar energy or solar power is protecting yourself against the price rises and fluctuations in grid supplied energy. This works hand in hand with How Does Solar Energy Save Me Money.
Below we will explore the price increases for both commercial (non domestic) and domestic energy users over the last 20 years. The figures are based on annual average prices per year supplied by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) (was Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)), the ONS (Office for National Statistics) and the energy industry.
These are annual averages which don’t necessarily include shorter term price spikes which you may had to recontract at, to show the trend. The figures also do not include CCL or any other supplemental charges as these vary, not forgetting of course that using your own solar power means no CCL charge or other supplement to pay.
Commercial Electricity Price Increases
This is broken down by business / organisation size to help you understand how your business has been affected by the rises as there are differences between business sizes. First a chart to show how average commercial prices have risen from 2004 to 2022, less than the average life of modern solar panels.
Average Commercial Electricity Price Increases 2004 - 2022
Looking at the figures it is easy to see how the prices have fluctuated and the increases over the years with very few decreases, most noticeably as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. Just from the first line of the table it is easy to see how the unit price has increased over a twenty year period with the last year unit price averaged over all commercial users 420.7% higher than the starting price. Translate that to a solar system where the unit price is fixed at the start and it is easy to how much money is saved on energy costs over the lifetime of a solar energy system and why they are such a good investment. Not sure which organisation size you are, see the reference under the main table based on annual electricity consumption in kWh.
Year | Average All | Very Small | Small | Small Medium | Medium | Large | Very Large | Extra Large |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 - 22 | 420.7% | 287% | 290.2% | 498.4% | 460% | 447.4% | 543.9% | 271.6% |
2004 - 5 | 25.7% | 11% | 17% | 35% | 32.4% | 28.4% | 31.7% | No Data |
2005 - 6 | 30.8% | 22.6% | 20.6% | 30.7% | 33.8% | 38% | 29.8% | No Data |
2006 - 7 | 7.7% | 16.9% | 11.9% | 4.7% | 4.6% | 2% | 15.7% | No Data |
2007 - 8 | 15.8% | 8.9% | 11.9% | 11.4% | 14.1% | 17.6% | 23.8% | 24.2% |
2008 - 9 | 14.1% | 14.4% | 14.5% | 14.1% | 11.9% | 13.1% | 8.8% | 10.5% |
2009 - 10 | -9% | 1.2% | -3.2% | -10.7% | -12.4% | -17.4% | -18.3% | -6.6% |
2010 - 11 | 0.4% | -1.9% | 1% | 2.9% | 5% | 7.2% | 6.3% | 5.2% |
2011 - 12 | 8% | 3.9% | 5.3% | 8.1% | 8.9% | 13.5% | 10.9% | 14.6% |
2012 - 13 | 6.5% | 3.4% | 5.2% | 6.6% | 7.7% | 10% | 13.3% | 5.8% |
2013 - 14 | 5.2% | 6.3% | 5.3% | 5.6% | 5.3% | 4.8% | 4.1% | 5.7% |
2014 - 15 | 2.2% | -3.3% | 3% | 2.8% | 4.2% | 2.2% | 2.6% | 1.8% |
2015 - 16 | -1% | -4.9% | -1.8% | -1.4% | -1.8% | -1.3% | -0.5% | -0.1% |
2016 - 17 | 4.2% | 11% | 4.4% | 2.7% | 5.3% | 6.6% | 6.9% | -1.2% |
2017 - 18 | 7.7% | 10.8% | 9.6% | 11.2% | 10.5% | 4% | 1.2% | 6.9% |
2018 - 19 | 7.9% | 5.8% | 7.2% | 8% | 6.9% | 7.7% | 7.1% | 12.4% |
2019 - 20 | 4.5% | 2.9% | 3.5% | 6.4% | 5.2% | 8.6% | 4.3% | 3.3% |
2020 - 21 | 12.2% | 5% | 5.7% | 10.5% | 8.6% | 9.3% | 17.2% | 21.2% |
2021 - 22 | 40.2% | 33.5% | 24.7% | 54.9% | 43.4% | 37.4% | 47.1% | 41.9% |
Find Your Organisation Size
Below are the organisation sizes used in the table above based on annual electricity consumption.
Very Small – 0 to 20 MWh
Small – 21 to 499 MWh
Small Medium – 500 to 1,999 MWh
Medium – 2,000 to 19,999 MWh
Large – 20,000 to 69,999 MWh
Very Large – 70,000 to 150,000 MWh
Extra Large – > 150,000 MWh