Regulation and cost drivers

Why network charges keep rising, and what you can do about them

When a business renews its electricity contract, the negotiation is mostly about the wholesale price of energy. A large part of the unit price is something else: charges for the transmission and distribution networks, for balancing the system, and for government policy schemes. Your supplier collects these and passes them on. No broker can negotiate them away.

Network charges are rising because the grid is being expanded to connect new generation and meet growing demand from heat pumps and electric vehicles. For 2026/27, distribution charges in the evening peak, known as the red band, rose by around 30% in Yorkshire, 20% in the North East, 18% in the Southern region and 17% in the East.

There are two ways to reduce what you pay. The first is to use less power from the grid at peak times, which a battery can do by storing cheaper energy and using it in the red band. The second is to make power on site, because a unit generated and used behind your meter never passes through the network and does not attract per-unit network or policy charges.

Regulators are reviewing how network costs are charged, and some may shift from per-unit charges to fixed charges over time. That is why we model more than one scenario for every site, and why we do not build a business case on peak-time savings alone.

EPC B by 2031: who it applies to and who it doesn’t

The government has confirmed that privately rented non-domestic buildings over 1,000 m² will need an Energy Performance Certificate rating of B from 2031. The interim target of EPC C by 2027 has been dropped. Smaller let buildings remain at the current minimum of EPC E.

The rules apply to let buildings, so owner-occupied premises are not covered. Landlords can register an exemption where the improvements needed would not pay back within seven years. The full government response is still to come, and details may change.

For landlords of large let buildings, on-site solar is one of the measures that can improve a rating. Under a power purchase agreement it costs the landlord nothing, and the tenant buys the power. For everyone else, the case for on-site power rests on cost, not compliance.

Zero export: why we design systems that never sell to the grid

Many rooftop systems are designed to send surplus power to the grid. That needs approval from the local network operator, which can take months where the network is busy, and the price paid for exported power is usually low.

We design to the G100 export limitation standard instead. The system’s controls make sure it never exports, so connection approval is generally simpler. The solar array is sized to the building’s own demand, and a battery absorbs any midday surplus for use later in the day.

The result is a system whose value comes almost entirely from power the building would otherwise buy at full retail price, which is the most valuable use for a unit of solar.