The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) does not hold data on electricity consumption at this level of disaggregation; however, for calculating the UK energy balance we estimate that on average sites generating electricity (including combined heat and power schemes) from waste use approximately 10 per cent of electricity generated for their own use.

Estimated electricity consumed for own use by sites generating electricity from waste⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾, 2015-16

Consumption (GWh)

(1) Based on data from DUKES table 6.4, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/renewable-sources-of-energy-chapter-6-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes

(2) Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. Non-biodegradable waste includes the non-biodegradable part of municipal solid waste plus waste tyres, hospital waste and general industrial waste.

Using emission conversion factors published by BEIS⁽³⁾, estimated emissions for own use by sites generating electricity from waste were:

(3) Emission conversion factors are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting

The Government published the joint BEIS/Ofgem Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan in 2017. The Plan outlines a series of actions to support the transition to a smart energy system which could save the UK an estimated £17 to £40 billion up to 2050. Some actions can benefit all consumers, including energy intensive industries. Particular measures in the Plan that could benefit these industries are improving access to the capacity market and changing the licensing regime around battery storage. Additionally, Government continues to fully support National Grid’s Power Responsive initiative to increase the opportunities for industrial consumers to participate in demand side response.

BEIS Ministers and officials have regular discussions with representative of energy intensive industries on a range of energy-related issues, including smart grids.

• The first Contract For Difference (CfD) allocation round results, published in 2015, saw over 1.2 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity secure contracts, estimated at the time of the auction to cost consumers just over £240 million per year (2012 prices).
• The second round results, announced in September 2017, saw the clearing price half for offshore wind delivered in the auction; we secured an additional 3.2 gigawatts of new offshore wind capacity, estimated at the time of the auction to cost consumers just over £130 million per year (2012 prices).
• There are many factors that affect payments under these contracts, which mean that actual costs may go up or down.
• These results demonstrate that the UK is an attractive place to invest, with a record amount of renewable capacity secured to power our homes.
• The price of offshore wind clearing through the auction has halved in two years, demonstrating that competitive auctions are working well to drive down costs and deliver savings for consumers, whilst delivering the government’s decarbonisation ambitions.

Information on UK electricity consumption by month can be found in Energy Trends table 5.5, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-section-5-energy-trends. The information requested is shown below:

UK electricity consumption

Source: Energy Trends table 5.5

The table shows average (mean) annual electricity consumption per domestic meter in the UK, split by country since 2010.

Average UK annual domestic electricity consumption (kWh), 2010-15

Figures for Northern Ireland were taken from BEIS’ sub-national domestic electricity consumption statistics in Northern Ireland:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/experimental-sub-national-domestic-electricity-consumption-statistics-for-northern-ireland-2009

All other figures were taken from BEIS’ sub-national electricity consumption statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sub-national-electricity-consumption-data

Consumption data for Northern Ireland for 2015 will be published in September 2017, with GB data for 2016 published in December 2017.

These figures show consumption per electricity meter rather than per household. These differ slightly as some households have more than one electricity meter while others have less (due to sharing a meter with neighbouring households). Figures on a household basis are available for Great Britain via the second link above, but are unavailable for Northern Ireland or the UK as a whole.

Figures for the UK include consumption for households which couldn’t be assigned to a particular country due to incomplete address data.

National Grid Electricity Transmission plc (NGET), in its role as system operator, have informed us that the average transmission network use of system charge for a GB generator is £5.77 / kW (2017/18 tariffs). The actual tariff is dependent on the location of the generator, the historic load factor of the generator, the type of generator and details of its specific connection.

As part of the overall transmission infrastructure facilitating the wider market, interconnectors do not pay use of system charges for the transmission network. As producers and consumers are liable for charges in their own countries, additional charges for using the interconnector, to allow imports and exports, would amount to double charging and may hinder the ability of GB producers to export electricity to other countries.

The Government routinely publishes total import figures from interconnectors in the annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), and the quarterly National Statistics Energy Trends data.

Electricity imported to the UK from January 2012 to end March 2017 amounts to the following:

• IFA (Interconnexion France-Angleterre) (France-England): 59.7 TWh;
• BritNed (Netherlands-England): 37.7 TWh;
• EWIC (East-West Interconnector) (Ireland-Wales): 2.3 TWh;
• NSI (North-South Interconnector) (Ireland-Northern Ireland): 1.1 TWh.

In addition, 1.26 TWh were imported into GB from Northern Ireland.

The Government routinely publishes total export figures in the annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), and the quarterly National Statistics Energy Trends data.

The latest available 12 month period of data spans March 2016 to March 2017 and shows a total export of 2,782 GWh through interconnectors.

In the 12 months ending March 2017, the total UK electricity demand, which includes energy industry use, losses and final consumption by end users, was 354.5 TWh. This is down 0.7 per cent on the same period a year earlier.

Source: Energy Trends table 5.2 - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electricity-section-5-energy-trends

The Government routinely publishes total import figures from interconnectors in the annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), and the quarterly National Statistics Energy Trends data.

The latest available 12 month period of data spans 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 and shows a gross import of 17,228 GWh through interconnectors.

The Government does not hold prices on electricity imports over interconnectors. This is commercial information held by market participants.

As regards the average price for other electricity generation, the average UK power price in the day ahead market, the most commonly cited trading time frame, was £45.01 over the past 12 months. This is an incomplete picture as power is sold across a number of time frames, from year ahead through to intraday trading, and it would be inappropriate to extract wholesale prices from one time frame and use it to infer prices across other time frames. The Government does not have visibility of longer term time frames, which is commercial information held by market participants.