The average annual domestic electricity bill in the United Kingdom saw an overall increase from 2014 to 2024 and boomed in 2023. In this period, households with an annual consumption of ***** kilowatt-hours saw bills rise from *** to ***** British pounds, including value-added tax. The household expenditure on electricity in the UK amounted to approximately **** billion current British pounds in 2023. Direct debit payments consistently cheaper In the period under consideration, the annual bill for an electricity consumption of ***** kilowatt-hours was consistently more expensive for consumers using standard credit as a method of payment, averaging ***** real British pounds in 2024. From 2016 onwards, consumers using the prepayment method paid less than standard credit consumers and, in 2022, their bill was the least expensive, at *** real British pounds. Electricity prices on the rise Household electricity prices in the UK have doubled in the past decade for both consumer groups. Despite the UK government setting a tariff cap to protect consumers, the UK’s power market was greatly impacted by the global energy crisis. In August 2022, electricity prices in Great Britain peaked at *** British pounds per megawatt-hour, over four times the price compared to August the following year.

The average wholesale electricity price in July 2025 in the United Kingdom is forecast to amount to****** British pounds per megawatt-hour, a decrease from the previous month. A record high was reached in August 2022 when day-ahead baseload contracts averaged ***** British pounds per megawatt-hour.
Electricity price stabilization in Europe Electricity prices increased in 2024 compared to the previous year, when prices stabilized after the energy supply shortage. Price spikes were driven by the growing wholesale prices of natural gas and coal worldwide, which are among the main sources of power in the region.

… and in the United Kingdom? The United Kingdom was one of the countries with the highest electricity prices worldwide during the energy crisis. Since then, prices have been stabilizing, almost to pre-energy crisis levels. The use of nuclear, wind, and bioenergy for electricity generation has been increasing recently. The fuel types are an alternative to fossil fuels and are part of the country's power generation plans going into the future.

Northern Ireland has the lowest average annual domestic standard electricity bills by prepayment in the United Kingdom. In 2023, this figure amounted to 771 British pounds. By comparison, England and Wales average electricity bills amounted to roughly 922 British pounds.

This statistic displays the average domestic standard electricity bills in the United Kingdom by direct debit payment in 2019. Northern Ireland had the cheapest annual standard electricity bills by direct debit.

Consumers using a direct debit method of payment had the lowest average domestic standard electricity bill in the United Kingdom until 2021, although prepayment accounted for the least expensive bill in 2022 and 2023. For most of the decade, prepayment incurred the highest average bills for consumers, however from 2016 it has been surpassed by standard credit. In 2023, standard credit customers paid an average of 959 pounds for their electricity bill. The average domestic standard electricity bill in the UK has increased over the past decade for all payment methods.

Household electricity prices in the United Kingdom averaged 22.03 euro cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the first half of 2020. Over the past decade, household electricity prices have seen an overall increase, peaking at 22.10 euro cents per kWh in the second half of 2019. On average, the UK pays some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. Annual electricity billsIn 2019, the average annual domestic electricity bill for those with an electricity consumption of up to 3,800 kWh was 608 British pounds. In comparison, those with a consumption of 6,000 kWh paid 837 British pounds. Payment methods also affect electricity bills, with consumers who used prepayment paying the least. In 1970, the overall expenditure on electricity by all end users in the UK amounted to 1.5 billion British pounds. This increased significantly in the following decades and amounted to nearly 38 billion pounds by 2018.

UK Electricity decreased 27.25 GBP/MWh or 26.60% since the beginning of 2025, according to the latest spot benchmarks offered by sellers to buyers priced in megawatt hour (MWh). This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United Kingdom Electricity Price.

Ireland, Italy, and Germany had some of the highest household electricity prices worldwide, as of March 2025. At the time, Irish households were charged around 0.45 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour, while in Italy, the price stood at 0.43 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour. By comparison, in Russia, residents paid almost 10 times less. What is behind electricity prices? Electricity prices vary widely across the world and sometimes even within a country itself, depending on factors like infrastructure, geography, and politically determined taxes and levies. For example, in Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden, taxes constitute a significant portion of residential end-user electricity prices. Reliance on fossil fuel imports Meanwhile, thanks to their great crude oil and natural gas production output, countries like Iran, Qatar, and Russia enjoy some of the cheapest electricity prices in the world. Here, the average household pays less than 0.1 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour. In contrast, countries heavily reliant on fossil fuel imports for electricity generation are more vulnerable to market price fluctuations.

This dataset provides values for ELECTRICITY PRICE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

This statistic shows the expenditure on electricity by domestic end users in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1970 to 2018, in million British pounds. It shows that the expenditure on electricity increased significantly over this period, from 645 million British pounds in 1970 to approximately 17.8 billion British pounds in 2018. In the year 2000, the expenditure actually decreased when compared to 1995, but continued to increase in the following years.

In 2023, it cost on average **** Great British pounds to charge a Tesla Model Y Long Range from the 2023 Model Year in the United Kingdom, based on an average electricity cost of ** pence per kilowatt-hour. In contrast, charging the Volkswagen ID.3 Pro cost on average under six pounds. The Volkswagen ID.3 Pro was the sixth best-selling battery-electric model in the United Kingdom in 2023.

In September 2024, industrial electricity prices in the European countries of Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom were among the highest in the world, at around **** U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour. Singapore was the Asian country with the highest electricity bill worldwide at that time. Lowest electricity prices in the world The average retail electricity price in the United States was considerably lower than in most of Europe. Iceland was the European country with one of the lowest electricity bills for enterprises that month. At the bottom of the ranking were also Russia, Iraq, Qatar, Argentina, and Libya. In these countries, commercial electricity prices amounted to less than *** U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour. Household electricity prices In addition, European countries had the highest household electricity prices worldwide that month, with Italy at the top of the ranking. By comparison, Iran and Ethiopia had the lowest residential electricity prices in the world.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Over-Consuming Cold Appliances, 2015 is a large scale field trial, in which 998 appliances were monitored from 766 properties across England. Electricity consumption and temperature data were collected over a 7 day period and occupant interviews were conducted to understand how appliances were used and maintained.

Improving the energy efficiency of Britain’s housing stock forms a major part of the Government’s energy and climate change policy. An important end use of energy in the housing stock is electricity consumed by household appliances, including fridges and freezers. In 2014, it was estimated that 10.5 TWh of electricity in England was consumed by domestic cold appliances, equivalent to 15.6% of the total electricity consumed by household domestic appliances in England. Previous research has suggested that around 9% of domestic cold appliances may be over-consuming (i.e. using significantly more electricity than they were designed to); however these findings were based on a relatively small sample.

The present study recorded that of all the appliances monitored, 8% were found to be over-consuming. The average electricity consumption of an over-consuming cold appliance was 730 kWh/year (+/- 69 kWh/year), which was more than double that of all other cold appliances, where the average was 322 kWh/year (+/- 14 kWh/year). Replacing over-consuming appliances with appliances that operate ‘normally’ could represent a saving of approximately 408 kWh per appliance. This equates to £58/year, which is more than 10% of a household’s electricity bill. Scaled up to the English housing stock, the removal of over-consuming appliances from the household stock could result in a saving of 1.4 TWh/year, approximately 0.65 mega tonnes of CO2 and potential savings of over £199 million in electricity costs.

Further information about this project can be found on gov.uk Publications webpage.


Main Topics:

The main focus of this study is electricity consumption.

UK Gas rose to 85.31 GBp/thm on July 11, 2025, up 1.32% from the previous day. Over the past month, UK Gas's price has fallen 0.15%, but it is still 17.29% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. UK Natural Gas - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on July of 2025.