Data and sources.

Energy imports, 2025

“In 2025, 43% of the energy Britain needs was bought from abroad.”

Source

DESNZ, Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2026, chapters 1–7 (30 July 2026), chapter 1: “The UK’s net import dependency stood at 43.3 per cent” in 2025 (net imports as a share of primary energy supply), and “over 90 per cent” of energy imports were oil and gas.

How much less energy electric machines use

“Heat, transport and industry can all do the same job with about a third of the energy.” Heat pumps: “3×”. Electric cars: “77% of the energy reaches the wheels.”

Sources

Ember, Electrification: heat pumps and electric vehicles need “three to four times less energy to do the same work” as gas boilers and petrol or diesel cars; globally (not a UK figure), if today’s energy system were fully electrified it would use about 40% less primary energy.

Heat pumps: the DESNZ-funded Electrification of Heat demonstration (Energy Systems Catapult) measured air source heat pumps in UK homes at a seasonal performance of about 2.8 (281%), against about 82% for a gas boiler measured in use. The “3×” on the page is that figure rounded.

Cars: US Department of Energy, All-electric vehicles: electric vehicles “convert over 77% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels”; petrol vehicles “only convert about 12%–30% of the energy stored in gasoline to power at the wheels”.

Port Talbot’s electric arc furnace

“Electric arc furnaces melt scrap steel with electricity instead of smelting iron ore with coal. Port Talbot’s opens by 2028.”

Sources

Tata Steel UK, One year on: Port Talbot electric arc furnace transformation (16 June 2026): the 3.2 million tonne-a-year furnace is “due to be commissioned late in 2027 / early 2028”.

The Construction Index, McAlpine breaks ground on £1.25bn Port Talbot furnace (14 July 2025): the furnace will melt “UK-sourced scrap steel”.

Electricity made in Britain, and how much of our energy is electric

“Nine in ten units of our electricity are already generated in the UK, and nearly two-thirds of it is low-carbon. But less than a fifth of the energy we use is electric.” Also “Britain has stood still at around a fifth.”

Sources

DESNZ, Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2026 (30 July 2026), chapter 5: UK electricity generation was 293.6 TWh in 2025 and net imports were 29.7 TWh, so about 91% of the electricity used was generated in the UK. Low-carbon sources (renewables and nuclear) made 64.3% of generation, 58% of electricity used; fossil fuels, almost all gas, made 32.3% of generation. Net imports came mostly from France (21.9 TWh) and Norway (9.0 TWh). Table 1.1: electricity was 18.6% of final energy consumption in 2025, excluding non-energy use.

SSE, Powering secure, affordable energy (July 2026), p.19: electricity meets “22% today” of the UK’s energy demand. Its chart on p.15 (IEA data) shows the UK’s share roughly flat at about 20–21% since 2010.

Notes

Figures are for the UK. The 91% is on a net basis: imports less exports. Of the 323.3 TWh used, 58.4% was low-carbon generated here, 32.4% gas and other fuels generated here and 9.2% imported. The chart labels these 58%, 33% and 9%, so they add up to 100% and the first two to the 91% generated here.

Bills compared with winter 2021/22

“Why are we paying 58% more for energy this winter than in winter 2021/22?”

Source

House of Commons Library, Gas and electricity prices during the ‘energy crisis’ and beyond (28 August 2026): “The upcoming increase in the October 2026 cap will mean bills for typical levels of consumption will be 58% above their winter 2021/22 level.”

Basis

Compares the price cap for the same typical level of consumption in each period, in cash terms (not adjusted for inflation). Ofgem revised its typical-consumption figures in 2026, so the October 2026 headline of £1,723 is not directly comparable with the 2021/22 headline; the 58% holds use constant. The figure applies to the October–December 2026 cap; the January–March 2027 cap is announced in late November.

More of our own power, cheaper power

“In 2025, electricity cost less than half as much when gas made under a fifth of it as when gas made over half.” Also “the more we make, the cheaper it gets” (energy security).

Source

Ember, British power prices are increasingly independent from gas (13 May 2026): “In 2025, hours with gas below 20% of the grid mix averaged £60/MWh”, “compared to £130/MWh in hours where gas made up more than 50% of the mix.”

Paying to switch wind off and gas on

“In 2025, Britain paid around £1.4 billion to switch off wind farms and fire up gas instead, because the grid and the rules weren’t built to use what we make.”

2025

Octopus Energy, Britain hits £1.5bn wasted wind bill three months earlier than in 2025 (5 October 2026), from Elexon data: 2025’s “entire £1.47 billion bill” for switching off wind farms, including the cost of replacement generation. Also reported by The Telegraph (22 January 2026).

Caithness Business Index, Why Is Britain Turning Off Its Own Wind Farms? (16 April 2026) gives a lower total: “The total bill: £1.35 billion.”

Why

National Audit Office, Delays to electricity grid upgrades risk higher bills (11 September 2026): constraint costs “totalled £1.9 billion in 2025-26” (financial year), and “This has normally meant paying wind farms to turn off and gas plants to turn on.”

Using less electricity raised its cost

“Much of the system is already built. The more homes, businesses and data centres run on it, the less of the cost of that system each unit has to carry.”

Source

Boston Consulting Group, To Cut Electricity Bills, Britain Needs to Use More, Not Less (26 August 2026): “An 11% fall in total GB demand since 2015 explains 39% of the rise in electricity system cost – more than any other factor.” Its aim is a system “in which costs are recovered across a larger usage base”.

UK Energy Research Centre, The cost of electricity in the UK (28 July 2026): “Accelerating electrification offers an opportunity to spread fixed costs across growing demand for electricity.”

Note

BCG’s figures are modelling. New demand lowers costs most when it uses spare capacity, at the right times and places; demand added at the evening peak can need new grid of its own.

What the next gas shock would cost

“If another 2022-style gas shock hits in 2030, household bills rise by around 32% on our current path. Stop building fixed-price British power and that rise is around 73%.”

Source

SSE, Powering secure, affordable energy (July 2026), p.8, chart from LCP Delta (2026): what would happen to household energy bills “in the event of a gas price shock similar to the one experienced in 2022”. For 2030, a rise of about 32% in the central scenario (“current trajectory”) and about 73% in the no-CfD scenario.

Note

Modelling; the values are read from the chart, which doesn’t print them. The no-CfD scenario “assumes no CfD-backed renewables on the system”.

Industrial electricity prices in Europe

Pence per kWh for medium industrial users (2,000–19,999 MWh a year), taxes included except VAT and recoverable levies, July–December 2025. Most expensive first.

Source

DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, table 5.4.2: non-domestic electricity prices in the EU for medium consumers, including taxes (excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies). Derived from Eurostat.

Notes

DESNZ converts prices to sterling at the exchange rate at the time of publication for each period. The European median is the median of the 27 EU countries plus the UK.

Industrial electricity prices, 2023

“In 2023, British industry paid four times what American firms paid for electricity, and nearly 50% more than French and German firms.”

Source

ONS, The impact of higher energy costs on UK businesses: 2021 to 2024 (19 May 2025): “Electricity prices for UK industrial users were almost 50% higher than in France and Germany and four times higher than the United States and Canada.”

Data

Industrial electricity prices including taxes, converted to sterling at annual average exchange rates, from DESNZ table 5.3.1, derived from the International Energy Agency’s Energy Prices and Taxes. DESNZ has since withdrawn the table under the IEA’s terms of use.

Businesses cutting investment

“High energy costs have already pushed over 40% of British businesses to cut investment.”

Source

CBI and Energy UK, Cutting Business Energy Costs: The Case for Action (22 February 2026), as reported by Anadolu Agency (23 February 2026): of firms surveyed, “about 40% have scaled back investment in response”.

The Telegraph, Four in 10 bosses to cut investment because of energy costs (14 July 2026), citing the CBI: “Four in 10 businesses are cutting investment”.

China’s electric share

“China has doubled the electric share of its energy use since 2005.”

Sources

SSE, Powering secure, affordable energy (July 2026), p.15: “increasing electricity’s share of its energy system from 12% in 2000 to nearly 30% today”. Its chart (IEA data) starts at about 17% in 2010.

Ember, China Energy Transition Review 2026 (8 September 2026): the share of electricity in final energy use reached “28.8% in 2024, up from 22.3% in 2015”.

Note

Neither source prints a 2005 figure. It falls between the 12% of 2000 and the roughly 17% of 2010, so the doubling since 2005 is an estimate.

What it costs to build a data centre

“Up to 70% of the cost of building a data centre is electrical work.”

Source

Bluebeam, Six Shortcuts, One Trade Holding the Risk (23 September 2026): the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a North American union, “estimates 45% to 70% of the construction budget goes to the electrical subcontractor.”

Note

70% is the top of that range and covers the subcontractor’s full scope. The same article gives Turner & Townsend’s 2025 cost index, which “puts electrical systems at 48% to 54% of construction cost”, and adds: “Both figures exclude servers and IT equipment, which make electrical a much smaller share of total project cost.”

Energy jobs

“Sparkies, welders and line workers are the fastest-growing trades in energy, and Britain’s new energy industries already support 304,000 jobs.”

Jobs

ONS, Low carbon and renewable energy economy, UK: 2024 (25 February 2026): “UK LCREE employment in 2024 was estimated at 304,000 full-time equivalents (FTEs)”. “New energy industries” here means the ONS’s low-carbon and renewable energy economy.

Trades

DESNZ, Clean Energy Jobs Plan (19 October 2025): by 2030 demand for electricians and electrical fitters is set to “more than double” and for welding trades to “more than triple”.

America’s gas, Europe’s gas

“America has sold more gas abroad than it buys since 2016, and its gas cost about a third of Europe’s in 2025.”

Net exporter

US Energy Information Administration, Natural gas imports and exports: “The United States has been an annual net exporter of natural gas since 2016.”

Prices

US: EIA, Henry Hub Natural Gas Spot Price, annual average (via FRED): $3.52 per MMBtu in 2025, from $6.73–$8.86 in 2005–2008 and mostly $2–4 since 2009. Europe: IMF, Global price of Natural gas, EU (via FRED): $11.91 per MMBtu in 2025. Before 2009 the two were broadly similar.

Electric kit wastes less

“A heat pump is three to four times as efficient as a gas boiler, and a more electric Britain would waste around half as much energy by 2050.”

Heat pumps

Climate Change Committee, The Seventh Carbon Budget (February 2025): “Heat pumps are around three-to-four times more efficient than gas boilers.”

Wasted energy

Climate Change Committee, Progress in reducing emissions: 2026 report to Parliament (24 June 2026): “by 2050, the efficiency of a more electrified energy system would reduce wasted energy by around half compared to today”. This is modelling.

Two crises, two bill rises

“Twice in five years a foreign crisis has sent British bills through the roof: first Russia, then the Middle East.”

Russia, 2022

Ofgem, Ofgem updates price cap level and tightens up rules on suppliers (26 August 2022): the cap rose to £3,549 a year for a typical household from 1 October 2022, with wholesale gas prices “driven still higher to record levels by Russia slowly switching off gas supplies to Europe”. Ofgem’s chief executive: “The price of energy has reached record levels driven by an aggressive economic act by the Russian state.”

Middle East, 2026

Ofgem, Energy price cap will rise by 13% from July (27 May 2026): “This increase is a result of higher wholesale gas prices, caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.” A further 4% rise followed from October (Ofgem, Energy price cap will rise by 4% from October 2026).

Gas goes to whoever pays most

“In a crisis, gas goes to the highest bidder, which puts British families in a bidding war with the world.”

Source

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, LNG and UK Energy Security (Marshall Hall, May 2023), p.29: “it remains the case that LNG cargoes are delivered to the UK only when there is no higher-value alternative market available to the cargo owner.” The paper reports that LNG made up more than a third of UK gas demand in 2022.

Energy security

“A security workshop run with the world’s oldest defence and security think tank heard that gas price shocks can bring Britain to its knees.” “Power made at thousands of sites across Britain is also far harder to knock out than a handful of big plants.”

Sources

RenewableUK, Public First and RUSI, New threats and new tools: reinventing energy security for an era of instability (March 2026): “There is no need to start a costly war with the UK when repeated gas prices shocks will bring us to our knees just as effectively”; and “The decentralisation and smaller size of renewable assets means that even when they are attacked, their disruption poses fewer threats to system stability.”

IEA, 2022 Energy Crisis: the crisis and global responses: “a greater supply of clean energy sources and technologies would have protected consumers and mitigated some of the upward pressure on fuel prices.”

SSE, Powering secure, affordable energy (July 2026), p.6.

Wholesale prices during the Gulf crisis

“When the Gulf crisis hit, the British power we’d already built kept wholesale electricity around 30% cheaper than it would have been.”

Source

SSE, Powering secure, affordable energy (July 2026), p.9: “SSE estimates wholesale prices since the outset of the recent conflict in the Middle East have been around 30% lower than they would have been thanks to renewables.”

Before the crisis

Energy UK, supporting statistics and evidence, citing ECIU, for wind alone in 2025: “This £38/MWh saving represents a 31% reduction on the no‑wind price”.

How often gas sets the price

“Gas still sets the price of our electricity most of the time, and that price is set on world markets.”

Sources

Institute for Government, The UK electricity market (29 May 2026): “In 2026 gas only sets the price of electricity 60% of the time, compared to more than 90% in 2021.” On Contracts for Difference: they set “a ‘strike price’ that generators are guaranteed.”

2030

The same explainer: even if the 95% clean power target is met by 2030, “the National Energy System Operator (NESO) estimates that gas may continue to set the price of electricity 15% of the time”.

Note

Estimates vary by method and year: UKERC put gas’s share at about 90% of hours in 2025, falling to about 60% by 2029.

What makes up a typical bill

“Policy costs are on the bill too: about 6% of a typical bill. Wholesale energy, priced largely by gas, is 47%.”

Source

Ofgem, Summary of changes to energy price cap, 1 October to 31 December 2026 (26 August 2026): for a typical dual-fuel Direct Debit bill of £1,723, wholesale costs are 47%, networks 24%, operating costs 17% and policy costs 6%; the remaining ~6% is VAT on gas, supplier profit allowance, headroom and levelisation. “Due to the role gas continues to have in setting power prices, the gas wholesale allowance is going up by 13% and the electricity wholesale allowance is going up by 10%.”

Image credits

Photograph licensed from iStock: the hero (1777966022). Torness power station, behind the closing line: gailhampshire, licensed under CC BY 2.0, cropped and toned. Vladimir Putin: Press Service of the President of Russia (kremlin.ru), licensed under CC BY 4.0, cropped and toned.