Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Energy Statistics

1 Victoria Street,
Westminster,
London,
United Kingdom,
SW1H 0ET

UK statistics on electricity prices for household (Domestic) and final non-household (Non-Domestic) customers recorded to European standards for comparability.

Data is provided on the volumes sold in the country, the value of these sales, amount of VAT on this value and amount of other taxes, levies & charges elements charged on this value all by consumer classification. Additionally, unit price equivalents are derived and recorded in the local currency per kilowatt hour.

The collection uses an internal Eurostat classification system based on a range of bands of annual electricity consumption. There are different sets of representative classifications for household electricity consumption and for final non-household electricity consumption to reflect the differing levels of use between the two sectors.

Covers consumption from both the Household sector and final non-household sector (which includes industry, services, offices and agriculture). 

The prices are collected reported in national currencies (in this case pound sterling [£]) per kWh and collected and presented based on different bands of consumption.

For the household sector, these bands are:

• DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
• DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
• DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
• DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
• DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.

For the final non-household sector, the bands are:

• IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
• IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
• IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
• ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
• IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
• IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
• IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh or more.

There exist 2 different levels of disaggregation for ‘semestrial’ (representing a 6 month period) and annual prices:

1- Semestrial prices:

These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:

• Level 1 prices: prices excluding taxes and levies.
• Level 2 prices: prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
• Level 3 prices: prices including all taxes and levies.

2- Annual prices:

These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:

• Energy and supply: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
• Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs, and meter rental and metering costs.
• Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
• Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
• Capacity taxes: Taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
• Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO₂ or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
• Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
• All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.

In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national electricity prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) but not published because it could potentially be used to re-calculate some commercially confidential values.

The taxes (including Value Added Tax) and levies data recorded and presented are non-refundable.

In the table below, are examples of the main taxes reported in "All other taxes" 

Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.

Household customers: Data is collected from 6 suppliers out of approximately 73 suppliers and currently (based on Quarter 1 2019) representing approximately 60% of the market share of the household market.

Final non-household customers: Data is collected from 7 electricity suppliers out of around 90 suppliers and currently (based on Quarter 1 2019) representing approximately 60% of the market share of the non-household customer market.

Data is collected for the whole of the United Kingdom, including England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It excludes other overseas dependencies.

Electricity prices data for United Kingdom are available since January 1998 for household electricity consumption and July 1998 for final non household consumption.

Not applicable as this is not an index measure.

All prices data are reported in the national currency (in this case pound sterling [£]) per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes these prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity). Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.

Data are recorded on a ‘semester’ based approach which is period of 6 months within a given year. For these ‘semestrial’ prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2. For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).

At EU level the legal acts and agreements underpinning this are:

• Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/823 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).

At national level:

• While not specifically invoked during the collection process. Companies are obliged to provide data for our collections under the Statistics of Trade Act 1947 and this can be invoked during non-response
• Additionally the data are held and processed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics

At EU level:

• Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation apart from its usual dissemination channels (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release).

At national level:

• Data is sent to Eurostat
• Aggregated data and other EU countries data are published as part of the Quarterly Electricity Prices series of releases. Key users of these statistics include industry, regulators like Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM) and research and academia.

At EU level the Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities underpins this.

At national level all data are held and processed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics

The data captured are commercially sensitive and are therefore treated in line with the UK Code of Practice on data governance. While published data does not allow identification of single consumers.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has an agreement in place with energy suppliers to encourage energy suppliers to transmit their data via the secure UK Oil and Gas Authority portal. The portal also acts as a repository database for securely storing and retrieving the data. All data is processed by employees directly involved in the production of official statistics and stored on secure servers with permissions based access.

Suppliers are provided with assurances that the natural gas and electricity data they provide are aggregated to produce unit prices by band size. Given the data has been aggregated before transmission there is therefore no disclosure risk.

The data collected, aggregated and transmitted to Eurostat is also used in the Quarterly Energy Prices release. The publication is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/quarterly-energy-prices

In line with Statistics Code of Practice, these statistics are pre-announced and available publicly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=energy+prices&organisations%5B%5D=department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy

The information used in the Eurostat’s submission is reported as part of the International section of the release. Commentary is provided every quarter and data tables published biannually and incorporate data from European countries sourced from Eurostat’s release.

The release calendar is available publicly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=energy+prices&organisations%5B%5D=department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy

The release calendar within the statistical release itself also provides a more detailed breakdown on the publication of individual tables. The most recent Quarterly Energy Prices release is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790035/QEP_Q4_2018.pdf

The release calendar is available online and the statistical release is also published online and in an accessible format. We e-mail out to key users of the statistics externally and internally. We additionally promote the statistical release via press release and put out an associated Twitter message through the Department’s Twitter page.

Electricity prices in United Kingdom are published on a semestrial / 6-monthly basis on Eurostat's website. The Department also releases a Quarterly Energy Prices statistical release and incorporates European data into the bi-annual International tables. Other similar statistics are released on a monthly and quarterly basis.

A statistical press notice is released here and occasionally includes the international statistics. The most recent issue is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-energy-statistics-statistical-press-release-march-2019

The data is available as part of the Quarterly Energy Prices publication which is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/quarterly-energy-prices

The underlying tables are released as aggregated international data along with other EU countries data are published.

There are no publicly available or publicly accessible online databases apart from Eurostat’s own data.

Not applicable

Microdata is only shared internally with the economists in order to calculate the splits for various categories as part of the Eurostat submission. This data is not used for other purposes or available publicly. Potentially non-sensitive data may be accessible by Freedom of Information requests.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Methodology notes are available covering each of the sections of the Quarterly Energy Prices. The International data methodology note is available online and available publicly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Not applicable

Quality management documentation is included as part of the methodology note, the quality elements are available within the International data methodology note and is also available online and available publicly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Data received is quality assured against previous company returns. Comparisons against similar companies that have submitted data are also measured. If data seems to be showing a trend that is unexpected the providers are contacted. Aggregated data are also compared against previous aggregations submitted to Eurostat.

The majority of the principles used are underpinned by the methodology note for international data, which is available online and available publically here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

In addtion to this, the Office for Statisitcs Regulation details best practice on Quality Assurance, which is avaliable online here:
https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/osr/what-we-do/systemic-reviews/administrative-data-and-official-statistics/

Currently our processes are in line with the level of quality expected of National Statistics as outlined in the Code of Practice. We are however looking in to how best automate elements of our quality assurance process and build in key rules to the system.

The European statistics on electricity in both the domestic and non-domestic sectors provide users with prices by consumer bands and allow comparisons with the other EU member states.

Enquiries and data requests show that users of the European statistics on electricity include the economists and policy team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as well as academia, media, Local Authorities and Councils in the UK and energy companies. Users are particular keen in those prices data given the availability of the various component breakdowns such as the supply costs, network costs, environmental and social levies and taxes which allows analyses at more disaggregate levels.

Within BEIS the prices data are mainly used in economic modelling of price projections while outside the department the prices data are used as a benchmark in setting up contracts. For example, a UK City Council, in developing a Heat Networks to deliver heat to both commercial developers of offices and residential customers, was exploring the non-domestic natural gas data collected for Eurostat with the aim to produce local indices on heat prices for their targeted small, medium and large customers. In industry, the prices are used in cost escalation clauses as a measure of price inflation or in contract negotiations as an indication of current prices levels or as evidence in disputes over historic charges.

Users needs not met by the data that we are aware of, are related to specific 'sector' information within the non-domestic prices dataset (i.e. the services and transport sectors) which we don't collect data on. We currently do not have plans to extend the collection to include these given inclusion is currently not a requirement for compliance with Eurostat and the extra burden on businesses which would incur in collecting data. However assumptions on band sizes are used by users as proxies for estimation.

BEIS is yet to conduct a user consultation survey on the European natural gas and electricity prices. However, BEIS do maintain a log of user requests for the EU statistics in order to understand the users’ needs better.

Returns are complete in terms of coverage required for Eurostat submissions however some detailed elements of the taxes and levies are derived by economist colleagues. If data are missing we request a complete return and rarely impute missing data.

Due to legal requirements, to date we have had 100% compliance from suppliers and therefore do not have missing returns. We schedule sufficient time before transmission to negotiate workable timescales for returns and chase non-response, in good time, with suppliers. In the instance data are missing we request a complete return and would at a last resort impute missing data. All data is transmitted to Eurostat so our completeness rate in this instance is 100%.

With the annual data, detailed elements such as the split of basic prices into supply and network costs are derived by the economists team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

Errors can occur at various stages of the survey process. Supplier errors occur when they supply incorrect information.  To assist in identifying errors at source, the questionnaires for both households and non-households contain built-in validation checks to prompt data suppliers where their data are incorrect. For example, data suppliers are warned if they are reporting values including levies and taxes as lower than values excluding levies and taxes, incorrect VAT rates etc.

Given that the true average prices of natural gas and electricity for both the domestic and non-domestic consumers are unknown, estimates of the average prices are calculated using samples of suppliers in both those sectors. The difference between the estimated average and the true average is the sampling error. The standard error gives an indication of the magnitude of the sampling error. We expect 95% of our estimates for a variable to be within two standard errors of the true unknown value for the population. The closer the standard error to zero, the more precise the estimate.

The coefficient of variation is the standard error of a variable divided by the survey estimate. It is used to compare the relative precision across surveys or variables. The closer the coefficient of variation is to zero, the more precise the estimate in percentage terms.

Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.

The sample provides a large proportion of the UK market.

Non-domestic Electricity coverage has been estimated to be between around 55-70% 

Domestic Electricity coverage has been estimated to be between around 55-65%

There has not been an estimate made the proportion of data reported that do not belong to the target population. Given the data is requested at an aggregate level, we are unable estimate of the proportion of this data that do not belong to the target population.

100% of the data is covered by the survey.

We currently don't make any estimation for measurement error for this collection. However, there is scope for this to happen during the collection process. We run validation checks during the processing of completed returns to see if certain companies returns report data that is an order of magnitude different (either x100 or x1000) when reporting information about pounds and pence or kWh or MWh. We also have standard checks that look into whether data are considerably different to figures submitted last time and/or compared to similar organiations which would also highlight these types of errors.

Additional information is covered in the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Not applicable to this return, given 100% compliance.

Additional information is covered in the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Not applicable to this return, given 100% compliance.

Additional information is covered in the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Not applicable to this return, given 100% compliance.

Additional information is covered in the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

We currently don't make any specific estimation for processing error for this collection. However, there is scope for this to happen during the collection process. We run validation checks during the processing of completed returns to see if certain companies returns report data that looks considerably different to figures submitted last time and/or compared to similar organiations.

Additional information is covered in the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

Not Applicable.

Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity price data within 2-3 weeks after the reference period. After arrival, the team checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2017 was sent 88 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2017 was sent 88 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2018 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2017 was sent 88 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2017 was sent 88 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2018 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2017 was sent 101 days after the reference period, 13 days after the first version and 11 day(s) after the mandatory deadline.

Version 4 of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 90 days after the reference period, 0 days after the first version and still within the deadline.

Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2017 was sent 110 days after the reference period, 22 days after the first version and 18 day(s) after the mandatory deadline.

Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2017 was sent 101 days after the reference period, 13 days after the first version and 11 day(s) after the mandatory deadline.

Version 4 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 90 days after the reference period, 0 days after the first version and still within the deadline.

The deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.

We would chase around 1 or 2 returns each quarter between the deadline we gave companies and transmission to Eurostat. 100% of returns are received in good time for processing and transmission. Deadlines for companies are set two weeks before transmission and we have adequete procedures for chasing.

We aim and have historically submitted before deadline. In our own publications it is the aim that the natural gas and electricity prices for both the non-domestic and domestic sectors are published by BEIS as soon as most of the EU country data become available on the Eurostat website at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.

BEIS publishes the Semester 1 EU country prices data in November with further revisions to account for more available data in December. Similarly, the semester 2 EU prices data are published in May with further revisions to account for more available data in June, including revisions to back series in all cases. There is a table of pre-announcement dates for future availability of the EU prices in the BEIS Quarterly Energy Prices publication.

Data is collected to the same standard as other Eurostat submissions. The coverage is all of the United Kingdom.

Not applicable

The basis for collection has remained the same over time but there have been methodological changes in line with Eurostat and these had been designated as a break in series in the associated releases.

The most recent fully comparable time series goes back to 2007.

There are other surveys of electricity and gas carried out in BEIS which collect both domestic and non-domestic volumes and values data covering most of the energy suppliers in the UK. Whilst those surveys do not capture data by band size of consumers, average prices for the UK are produced and the results used in the quality assurance process when calculating prices required by the EU.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Annual prices are coherent with semestrial prices.

As part of the survey control procedure, BEIS promotes best practice when conducting government statistical surveys by ensuring that the burden placed on data providers is minimised and follows the procedures as laid down by the UK Statistics Authority Codes of Practice at https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/code-of-practice/

The total burden to industry associated with the natural gas and electricity prices data collection is estimated to be approximately £6,400 in 2018, of which £3,000 is for the domestic survey.

For Electricity, the non-Domestic survey is estimated to cost £1,500 and the Domestic survey is estimated to cost £1,500. 

The cost is calculated as the:

[(number of questionnaires dispatched quarterly x 4) x (total time taken to complete, quality assure and transmit the questionnaires to BEIS) x Rate per hour].

where the rate per hour corresponds to that of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) payroll manager (code 4122).

In the questionnaires, during each collection, we allow companies to review the information they had submitted in previous quarters and query any large revisions with an aim to determine the factors driving these changes. We would then then transmit substantial revisions to Eurostat to ensure the most up to date and accurate data are received.

Additionally, in terms of publication of the data through our own release, the revisions policy we abide by is informed by UK Code of Practice standards for reporting revisions. We also publish revisions as soon as feasible following the identification of the error. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's statistical revisions policy is avaliable here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-standards-for-official-statistics/statistical-revisions-policy

Revisions can occur for many reasons, for example when new data become available and suppliers review past data provided, new suppliers added to the sample etc. Suppliers provide the domestic and non-domestic natural gas and electricity volume and value data, both quarterly and annually. To ensure that the annual data are consistent with the combined quarters, BEIS is adamant that the suppliers review all of their previously provided quarterly data.

In some instances semestrial data is revised when there are inconsistencies with annual figures.

There were revisions to the semester 1 2018 prices which comprise of quarter 1 and 2 of that year, for households and non-households.

Version 5 of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 273 days after the reference period.

Version 3 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2017 was sent 285 days after the reference period.

Version 5 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2018 was sent 277 days after the reference period.

Data are collected direct from energy suppliers. Energy suppliers record the price and volumes on their own data management systems.

We collect data from companies on a quarterly basis.

We use Excel forms which we send to suppliers who return these either via e-mail or through the secure UK Oil & Gas Authority portal.

The questionnaire design mirrors the requirements of Eurostat and the questionnaires themselves are in the annex of the methodology document available online and available publicly here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-comparisons-data-sources-and-methodologies

The validation we carry out other than monitoring response rates is comparisons against previously submitted returns and comparisons against other companies. We also compare the aggregated data against previous years.

The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy aggregate the returns on submission and compile them in the format for submission to Eurostat.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not perform imputation for this dataset.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not perform adjustment for this dataset.

Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.