Powering Britain
Why is British industrial electricity expensive, and what does Britain actually generate? UK and international prices, the real generation mix, and why installed capacity is not the same thing as electricity produced — every figure traced to DESNZ, DUKES or NESO.
How does UK industrial electricity compare internationally?
DESNZ publishes two separate international comparisons, built from two different underlying sources — only the first genuinely matches consumption bands across countries, so both are shown, clearly labelled.
Industrial electricity price, Medium consumer band
Among EU/Nordic peers on a genuinely matched consumption band, the UK's industrial electricity price sits at or near the top of the group.
View data table
| Period | Industrial electricity price, Medium consumer band |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 25.08 |
| France | 10.56 |
| Germany | 16.74 |
| Italy | 16.97 |
| Netherlands | 15.78 |
| Sweden | 7.42 |
International · Source: DESNZ, Quarterly Energy Prices Table 5.4.2 (from Eurostat) · as of 2025 H2
Industrial electricity price, IEA comparison
Against the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, UK industrial electricity is markedly more expensive — though this comparison lacks a stated consumption band and is weaker evidence than the EU chart above.
View data table
| Period | Industrial electricity price, IEA comparison |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 24.91 |
| United States | 5.1 |
| Canada | 6.55 |
| Japan | 11.82 |
| South Korea | 9.62 |
International · Source: DESNZ, Quarterly Energy Prices Table 5.3.1 (derived from IEA) · as of 2024
Industrial electricity price including taxes, 2024
Across every IEA country that reports comparable data, UK industrial electricity was the most expensive in 2024 — 26.6p/kWh against 24.8p for Ireland, the next highest.
View data table
| Period | Industrial electricity price incl. taxes, 2024 |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 26.63 |
| Ireland | 24.77 |
| Switzerland | 24.43 |
| Italy | 23.52 |
| Germany | 20.99 |
| Czech Republic | 20.58 |
| Poland | 20.04 |
| Slovakia | 19.69 |
| Netherlands | 19.68 |
| Hungary | 18.25 |
| Austria | 18.16 |
| Belgium | 18.14 |
| France | 16.33 |
| Greece | 15.24 |
| Luxembourg | 15.1 |
| Spain | 13.25 |
| Japan | 13.22 |
| Portugal | 12.41 |
| Denmark | 12.15 |
| New Zealand | 11.63 |
| South Korea | 10.97 |
| Türkiye | 10.1 |
| Sweden | 8.79 |
| Finland | 8.14 |
| Canada | 7.43 |
International · Source: DESNZ, Quarterly Energy Prices Table 5.3.1 (including taxes), derived from IEA Energy Prices and Taxes · as of 2024
Source defect
- ONS's 19 May 2025 article states that UK industrial electricity prices were "four times higher than the United States and Canada". Its own Figure 3 data give UK 25.85p/kWh, USA 6.48p/kWh (3.99x — consistent) and Canada 8.69p/kWh (2.97x — not four times). The Canada element of that sentence is not supported by the chart it cites.
A widely-quoted claim that the data has since overtaken
ONS reported in May 2025 that the UK had the highest industrial electricity price of the 24 IEA-reporting countries in 2023. That was correct for the DESNZ data available when it was written. DESNZ has since filled in 2023 figures for Denmark, the Netherlands and Japan, and revised the UK's own 2023 price upward. On the data as it stands today, 25 countries report for 2023 and the UK is second, behind Slovakia (27.1p against 28.6p). The UK is the highest in 2024. We show the current figures rather than repeat the superseded ranking.
Why is UK electricity more expensive? What these countries generate from
The two cheapest countries in the comparison above — France and Sweden — are also the two with almost no gas on their systems. That is the starting point for the explanation, though as the evidence below shows, it is not the whole of it, and the official sources genuinely disagree.
| Country | Gas | Coal | Nuclear | Wind | Solar | Hydro | Low-carbon total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 31.1% | 0.1% | 12.4% | 29.4% | 6.6% | 1.9% | 64.4% |
| France | 3.0% | 0.3% | 68.8% | 8.1% | 5.6% | 10.4% | 94.9% |
| Germany | 16.5% | 20.6% | 0.0% | 27.2% | 17.9% | 3.9% | 59.0% |
| Italy | 47.4% | 1.4% | 0.0% | 8.1% | 16.8% | 15.7% | 48.7% |
| Netherlands | 34.9% | 7.1% | 3.0% | 25.0% | 21.1% | 0.0% | 54.2% |
| Sweden | 0.1% | 0.0% | 27.4% | 22.8% | 2.6% | 40.1% | 98.8% |
| United States | 40.0% | 16.3% | 17.4% | 10.3% | 8.6% | 5.3% | 43.0% |
| Canada | 17.9% | 4.0% | 13.1% | 7.9% | 1.6% | 52.8% | 77.0% |
| Japan | 32.8% | 32.1% | 9.1% | 1.2% | 9.8% | 7.2% | 32.7% |
| South Korea | 27.9% | 31.1% | 29.6% | 0.6% | 6.1% | 0.6% | 40.0% |
2025 shares of total generation. Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, licensed CC-BY-4.0 — an independent research organisation compiling Eurostat, the Energy Institute, the US EIA and IRENA on one consistent basis, not an official statistical agency. The UK row is Ember's figure so that every country is measured the same way; this site's primary UK source remains DUKES, and the two differ slightly (Ember has UK low-carbon at 64.4% against DUKES' 64.3%).
Share of electricity generated from gas, 2025
Britain generates around a third of its electricity from gas. France and Sweden generate almost none — and pay the least of the European comparators.
View data table
| Period | Gas share of generation |
|---|---|
| Italy | 47.4 |
| United States | 40 |
| Netherlands | 34.9 |
| Japan | 32.8 |
| United Kingdom | 31.1 |
| South Korea | 27.9 |
| Canada | 17.9 |
| Germany | 16.5 |
| France | 3 |
| Sweden | 0.1 |
International · Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data (CC-BY-4.0) · as of 2025
What the official sources actually say — and where they disagree
1. Gas usually sets the price, even when it isn't most of the power
Wholesale electricity is priced "pay-as-clear": every generator receives the price of the most expensive plant needed in that period. DESNZ's own words: gas plants are "frequently the marginal plant in GB, meaning the price of gas generation often sets the wholesale electricity price." DESNZ has put unabated gas as the marginal generator around 80% of the time in 2020. Source: DESNZ, Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (2022); REMA Second Consultation (2024).
2. Government blames policy costs, not wholesale prices
The Department for Business and Trade states UK wholesale costs are "broadly comparable to similar nations (apart from the USA)", and points instead at policy costs: around £61/MWh for very large UK industrial users, about 27% of the bill, against roughly £2/MWh in France and £10/MWh in Germany. Its stated reason is distributional — Britain funded renewables through electricity bills rather than taxation, and spread the cost more evenly between households and industry than other countries did. Source: DBT, British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme consultation, November 2025.
3. But a large gap survives even with every tax and levy removed — and nothing official explains it
Stripping out all taxes and levies, DESNZ's own Eurostat table still shows UK very-large industrial users paying 15.51p/kWh in the second half of 2025, against 5.93p in France, 6.34p in Sweden, 11.18p in Germany and 11.68p in Italy — roughly 51% above the median. If policy costs were the whole story, that gap should largely close. No official document reconciling this was found. This is a genuine open question, not a settled explanation.
4. The published price is not what the largest users actually pay
Certified Energy Intensive Industries receive a 100% exemption from the indirect costs of Contracts for Difference, the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market, and network charge compensation rose to 90% in April 2026. Government estimates this reduces prices for around 500 highly electricity-intensive users by £65–£87/MWh in total. Comparator countries run their own reliefs — Germany spent billions on industrial electricity tax reductions and ETS offsets in 2023 — so an international comparison of published band prices compares two differently distorted numbers, in both directions.
5. Carbon pricing: the tidy story is currently wrong
The UK Emissions Trading Scheme is presently cheaperthan the EU's, not dearer — the European Parliament's research service records EU prices more than 60% above the UK carbon price in early 2025. What is genuinely GB-specific is Carbon Price Support, an £18/tCO₂ tax stacked on top of the UK ETS, which DBT itself names as a driver of higher wholesale costs and which is due to be abolished from April 2028.
6. A contested reading — our summary of the disagreement
The European Central Bank attributes cross-country price differences primarily to energy mix: countries relying on imported fossil fuels "tend to face higher electricity prices, since these are typically more expensive at the margin than nuclear or renewables". That sits in direct tension with DBT's policy-cost explanation. Both are credible institutions reading the same landscape differently. The table above is the evidence for the first; the £61/MWh figure is the evidence for the second. We present both rather than choose.
The UK's own industrial electricity and gas prices since 2004
UK industrial electricity price (Medium band)
UK industrial electricity prices roughly doubled between 2021 and 2023 around the European gas-price shock, and have not returned to pre-2021 levels.
View data table
| Year | UK industrial electricity price (Medium band) |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 3.97 |
| 2005 | 5.525 |
| 2006 | 6.972 |
| 2007 | 6.318 |
| 2008 | 9.227 |
| 2009 | 7.396 |
| 2010 | 7.269 |
| 2011 | 7.989 |
| 2012 | 8.456 |
| 2013 | 9.338 |
| 2014 | 9.521 |
| 2015 | 9.699 |
| 2016 | 9.921 |
| 2017 | 10.395 |
| 2018 | 11.908 |
| 2019 | 12.749 |
| 2020 | 13.017 |
| 2021 | 16.514 |
| 2022 | 23.361 |
| 2023 | 30.094 |
| 2024 | 26.226 |
| 2025 | 24.803 |
| 2026 | 24.458 |
United Kingdom · Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Quarterly Energy Prices — Table 3.4.1 · series 3.4.1 — Medium (excl. CCL) · as of 2026 Q1
UK industrial gas price (Medium band)
UK industrial gas prices spiked even more sharply over the same period, before partially receding.
View data table
| Year | UK industrial gas price (Medium band) |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 1.25 |
| 2005 | 1.897 |
| 2006 | 1.982 |
| 2007 | 1.8 |
| 2008 | 2.651 |
| 2009 | 1.803 |
| 2010 | 1.863 |
| 2011 | 2.451 |
| 2012 | 2.655 |
| 2013 | 2.914 |
| 2014 | 2.654 |
| 2015 | 2.367 |
| 2016 | 1.974 |
| 2017 | 1.836 |
| 2018 | 2.395 |
| 2019 | 2.267 |
| 2020 | 2.145 |
| 2021 | 4.283 |
| 2022 | 5.165 |
| 2023 | 5.14 |
| 2024 | 4.575 |
| 2025 | 4.197 |
| 2026 | 4.123 |
United Kingdom · Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Quarterly Energy Prices — Table 3.4.1 · series 3.4.1 — Medium (excl. CCL) · as of 2026 Q1
What Britain actually generates
31.75%
Gas, share of generation, 2025
17.72%
Offshore wind, share of generation, 2025
11.72%
Onshore wind, share of generation, 2025
12.21%
Nuclear, share of generation, 2025
6.86%
Solar, share of generation, 2025
0%
Coal, share of generation, 2025
Renewables generated 52.11% of UK electricity in 2025, and low-carbon sources (renewables plus nuclear) 64.3% — DUKES Table 5.6.C, the official shares table, verified directly against the published workbook.
UK electricity generation mix, 1996–2025
Coal has fallen from a major source to effectively zero; gas remains the single largest fuel; offshore wind has overtaken nuclear as the largest low-carbon source.
View data table
| Year | Gas | Coal | Nuclear | Offshore wind | Onshore wind | Solar | Hydro | Bioenergy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 84.086 | 145.216 | 94.671 | 0 | 0.488 | 0 | 3.393 | 2.221 |
| 1997 | 110.963 | 119.718 | 98.146 | 0 | 0.667 | 0 | 4.169 | 2.593 |
| 1998 | 117.798 | 122.971 | 99.486 | 0 | 0.877 | 0 | 5.118 | 3.237 |
| 1999 | 142.902 | 106.18 | 95.133 | 0 | 0.85 | 0.001 | 5.336 | 3.988 |
| 2000 | 148.077 | 119.95 | 85.063 | 0.001 | 0.945 | 0.001 | 5.086 | 4.328 |
| 2001 | 141.905 | 131.461 | 90.093 | 0.005 | 0.96 | 0.002 | 4.055 | 5.054 |
| 2002 | 152.277 | 124.279 | 87.848 | 0.005 | 1.251 | 0.003 | 4.787 | 5.625 |
| 2003 | 148.881 | 138.305 | 88.686 | 0.01 | 1.276 | 0.003 | 3.228 | 6.691 |
| 2004 | 157.064 | 131.788 | 79.999 | 0.199 | 1.736 | 0.004 | 4.844 | 7.94 |
| 2005 | 152.642 | 134.637 | 81.618 | 0.403 | 2.501 | 0.008 | 4.922 | 9.685 |
| 2006 | 140.828 | 148.85 | 75.451 | 0.651 | 3.574 | 0.011 | 4.593 | 9.928 |
| 2007 | 165.793 | 135.944 | 63.028 | 0.783 | 4.491 | 0.014 | 5.077 | 9.325 |
| 2008 | 176.219 | 124.381 | 52.486 | 1.335 | 5.788 | 0.017 | 5.145 | 9.535 |
| 2009 | 166.499 | 103.038 | 69.098 | 1.754 | 7.529 | 0.02 | 5.231 | 10.674 |
| 2010 | 175.653 | 107.594 | 62.14 | 3.06 | 7.226 | 0.04 | 3.591 | 12.261 |
| 2011 | 146.499 | 108.442 | 68.98 | 5.149 | 10.814 | 0.244 | 5.692 | 13.313 |
| 2012 | 100.17 | 142.792 | 70.405 | 7.603 | 12.244 | 1.354 | 5.31 | 14.734 |
| 2013 | 95.843 | 130.258 | 70.607 | 11.472 | 16.925 | 2.01 | 4.701 | 18.1 |
| 2014 | 100.892 | 100.239 | 63.748 | 13.405 | 18.555 | 4.054 | 5.888 | 22.619 |
| 2015 | 99.875 | 75.878 | 70.345 | 17.423 | 22.852 | 7.533 | 6.297 | 29.257 |
| 2016 | 143.356 | 30.669 | 71.726 | 16.406 | 20.754 | 10.395 | 5.37 | 30.066 |
| 2017 | 136.746 | 22.53 | 70.336 | 20.916 | 28.725 | 11.457 | 5.882 | 31.894 |
| 2018 | 131.49 | 16.831 | 65.064 | 26.525 | 30.382 | 12.668 | 5.443 | 35.102 |
| 2019 | 133.089 | 6.915 | 56.184 | 31.975 | 31.86 | 12.418 | 5.933 | 37.526 |
| 2020 | 111.881 | 5.699 | 50.239 | 40.75 | 34.873 | 12.547 | 6.878 | 38.564 |
| 2021 | 122.835 | 6.785 | 46.104 | 35.597 | 29.327 | 12.128 | 5.418 | 40.002 |
| 2022 | 125.823 | 5.943 | 47.4 | 45.113 | 35.102 | 13.983 | 5.068 | 35.953 |
| 2023 | 101.699 | 3.653 | 40.596 | 49.435 | 33.332 | 14.892 | 5.609 | 34.084 |
| 2024 | 87.409 | 2.04 | 40.588 | 48.805 | 34.813 | 14.992 | 5.731 | 40.131 |
| 2025 | 93.191 | 0 | 35.851 | 52.021 | 34.419 | 20.125 | 5.386 | 41.027 |
United Kingdom · Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), Chapter 5 — Electricity · as of 2025
Installed capacity is not the same as electricity generated
A gigawatt (GW) of installed capacity is what a plant COULD produce running flat-out; a terawatt-hour (TWh) of generation is what it ACTUALLY produced. The ratio between the two — the load factor — differs hugely by technology, and is the real story behind why "biggest capacity" and "biggest contributor" are not always the same fuel.
| Fuel | Installed capacity (2025) | Generation (2025) | Fleet load factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gas | 36.5 GW | 93.2 TWh | 29.7% |
| Nuclear | 5.9 GW | 35.9 TWh | 64.0% |
| Offshore wind | 7.1 GW | 52.0 TWh | 36.1% |
| Onshore wind | 7.1 GW | 34.4 TWh | 24.0% |
| Solar | 3.7 GW | 20.1 TWh | 11.1% |
| Hydro | 1.6 GW | 5.4 TWh | 32.3% |
| Bioenergy | 8.3 GW | 41.0 TWh | not published |
| Coal | 0.0 GW | 0.0 TWh | not published |
Wind, solar and small-scale hydro capacity in DUKES is DE-RATED (adjusted down for expected availability) — not directly comparable to a nameplate-GW figure quoted elsewhere. Load factors are DUKES' own directly-published fleet averages (tables 5.10.B/6.3), not calculated by UK Stat Pack from the capacity/generation columns above — see the Energy Technology Explorer for why that calculation is a trap (dividing by de-rated capacity inflates the result).
Carbon intensity and interconnection
Net electricity imports via interconnectors
29.7 TWh
2025 — France, Ireland/Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Ireland/Wales, Belgium, Norway and Denmark links combined.
Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), Chapter 5 — Electricity.
Live grid carbon intensity
NESO runs a separate, real-time half-hourly carbon-intensity API (forecast + actual) — a genuinely different product from the annual official figure charted below. Not shown as a chart here since it changes every 30 minutes; see it live at carbonintensity.org.uk.
Carbon intensity of UK electricity supplied
Carbon intensity of UK electricity has fallen by more than 70% since the mid-2000s, driven mainly by coal's decline and renewables' growth.
View data table
| Year | Carbon intensity of UK electricity supplied |
|---|---|
| 1996 | 521.32 |
| 1997 | 484.54 |
| 1998 | 484.75 |
| 1999 | 454.14 |
| 2000 | 475.8 |
| 2001 | 493.13 |
| 2002 | 478.46 |
| 2003 | 490.63 |
| 2004 | 492.24 |
| 2005 | 484.46 |
| 2006 | 510.88 |
| 2007 | 500.49 |
| 2008 | 494.72 |
| 2009 | 449.71 |
| 2010 | 457.48 |
| 2011 | 437.78 |
| 2012 | 482.94 |
| 2013 | 450.2 |
| 2014 | 402.56 |
| 2015 | 337.95 |
| 2016 | 271.06 |
| 2017 | 241.3 |
| 2018 | 221.01 |
| 2019 | 199.46 |
| 2020 | 178.41 |
| 2021 | 199.7 |
| 2022 | 194.34 |
| 2023 | 175.18 |
| 2024 | 153.7 |
| 2025 | 147.25 |
United Kingdom · Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), Chapter 5 — Electricity · series 5.14 — All fuels (including nuclear and renewables) · as of 2025
The grid connection bottleneck
Generation is only half the story — thousands of gigawatts of proposed new generation and storage are waiting in NESO's connection queue, most of which will never actually be built. See the full breakdown, including the historic 700+ GW headline, NESO's 2025 Connections Reform, and today's reform-adjusted pipeline.
See Britain's grid queue →How this is calculated, and what "evidence class" means
- A — Observed official statistic — every chart and table on this page: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, DUKES generation/capacity/load-factor/carbon-intensity/interconnector tables.
No figure on this page is calculated by UK Stat Pack — every number traces directly to a DESNZ/DUKES table, linked from each chart's own source line. The 2025 generation-share stat cards are a direct quote of DUKES Table 5.6.C, verified against the published workbook this session.