Introduction
If you’ve been watching your electricity bills climb and wondering when things will return to normal, here’s the honest answer: they probably won’t.
Business electricity in the UK is now 75% more expensive than before the 2021 energy crisis. While wholesale prices have pulled back from their 2022 highs, the structural charges that make up a growing share of every electricity bill are on a trajectory that will keep costs elevated for years to come.
The part of your bill nobody talks about
Most businesses focus on the unit rate when they think about electricity costs. But unit rates only tell part of the story.
Non-commodity charges, covering network infrastructure, grid maintenance, renewable subsidies, system balancing, and policy costs, now account for 42 to 52% of the average UK business electricity bill.
Source: energycosts.co.uk, 2026
That’s before you’ve used a single kilowatt hour. And unlike wholesale prices, which fluctuate with the market, these charges are set by regulators and will keep rising as investment in the UK’s electricity infrastructure accelerates.
Consumption and Distribution network charges: the cost that solar directly offsets
Among the structural charges on every business electricity bill, consumption and Distribution Use of System (DUoS) charges are particularly significant for manufacturers and particularly relevant to the solar decision.
Consumption charges are the costs on an electricity bill that are based on the amount of electricity you actually use — normally charged per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
DUoS charges are paid to your Distribution Network Operator (DNO) for the infrastructure that delivers electricity to your site. Critically, they are consumption-based: the more electricity you import from the grid, the more you pay. That creates a direct financial benefit from on-site generation.
With distribution network investment accelerating across the UK to support electrification and EV infrastructure, consumption and DUoS charges are forecast to rise significantly over the remainder of the decade. The businesses generating their own power on-site will absorb far less of that increase.
This is structural
Rising network costs are not an anomaly. They are the product of sustained investment in the UK’s electricity infrastructure: connecting renewable generation, reinforcing grid capacity, and supporting the transition to electrified heat and transport. Businesses are footing the bill.
Over the next five years, total network costs are projected to rise by around 69% — a trajectory that makes on-site generation an increasingly compelling proposition.
Source: Envantage, citing NESO five-year outlook, Jan 2026
Why manufacturers are most exposed
For industrial businesses, energy is rarely a minor overhead. It typically ranks among the top three operational costs, which means even moderate percentage increases translate into significant absolute sums.
The most direct response
The most effective way to reduce exposure to rising grid costs is to reduce reliance on the grid. Commercial solar does exactly that, generating electricity on-site during operating hours, reducing what you buy from the network, and insulating you from the structural charges that keep rising regardless of wholesale prices.
Done properly, with the right technology, precise installation, and ongoing maintenance, a commercial solar installation can deliver consistent, measurable savings year after year.
How Beba Energy Can Help
BeBa Energy is one of the UK’s most established commercial solar and battery storage installers, trusted by industrial and manufacturing businesses to design, install and maintain systems that genuinely perform. We combine pioneering technology with the technical precision of our German engineering heritage, and we back every installation with our quality performance guarantee.
If your energy costs are increasing and you want to understand what solar could realistically do for your site, we’d love to start a conversation.