Non-commodity charges

Beyond the levies above, several further charges are bundled into a unit rate and standing charge, or itemised separately on a half-hourly or pass-through contract. No supplier sets them and no supplier can remove them.

Because the non-commodity stack is the larger share of a business electricity bill and moves independently of the wholesale market, a business can reduce its consumption, read that wholesale prices have softened, and still receive a larger bill.

The headlines track the commodity. The part that has been growing is the part a headline does not cover, and it is not the part a cheapest-unit-rate comparison shows you.

This is also why the annual reset matters more than the daily market for most businesses. The regulated charges change on one date every year, and that date is knowable in advance.

Status: LawThe main rate is 0.801p per kWh for both electricity and gas from 1 April 2026, rising to 0.827p per kWh from 1 April 2027. The two fuels have been charged at the same rate since April 2024. The rate is uprated at the preceding Budget.

Two reliefs are worth knowing about.

A Climate Change Agreement, available to eligible energy-intensive sectors, reduces the levy to 8 per cent of the main rate on electricity and 11 per cent on gas. The supplier certificate has to be lodged with HMRC before it is applied.

Below a de minimis threshold of 1,000 kWh of electricity or 4,397 kWh of gas per month per site, the supply is treated as domestic and the levy does not apply. VAT is charged at the reduced rate on the same basis. Small sites on a large portfolio are routinely billed as though neither applies.

This appeared on electricity bills from 1 December 2025. It funds the construction of Sizewell C, and it is charged on units supplied.

The rate is set quarterly by the Low Carbon Contracts Company, published around 30 days before each quarter begins, and it has changed at every quarter since introduction. It has run in the region of 0.35p to 0.45p per kWh so far, and adjustments have been applied retrospectively to consumption already billed.

We do not publish a current rate here, because it would be out of date within three months. Check the LCCC published rates for the quarter in question, or ask us.

Whether you see it as a separate line depends on your contract. On a pass-through contract it appears itemised and is reconciled quarterly. On a fixed contract most suppliers embed it in the unit rate, though this varies by supplier and is worth establishing before you sign rather than after.

The charges that cannot be avoided are almost all charged per unit consumed. CCL and the Nuclear RAB levy are not waived by switching supplier, but both fall when consumption falls, as does the per-unit element of the network charge and the VAT on top of all of it. A unit never drawn avoids every layer at once.

The exception is the Green Gas Levy, which is charged per meter per day. Consumption reduction does not touch it. It is close to irrelevant on a large gas supply and material across a portfolio of small ones, which is the opposite of how it is usually described.

• Procurement timing and contract structure address the wholesale layer.
• Right-sizing agreed capacity reduces the network charge and can move a site down a charging band.
• A Climate Change Agreement, where the sector qualifies, cuts the levy substantially.
• Genuinely backed renewable supply removes CCL on electricity, but only where the backing is named and in writing.
• Reducing consumption pulls on almost every per-unit line at once.

Two offers with an identical unit rate can carry materially different total costs once network charges, capacity treatment and levy pass-through are accounted for. A sharp unit rate addresses one layer of a bill where that layer is no longer the majority.

The comparison that matters is total delivered cost with every line shown. That is how we set out a recommendation: the cheapest verified offer always shown, commission shown on the rate, and cost rises flagged rather than netted off.