How have business energy prices changed since 2020?

Business energy prices did not simply rise once and settle. DESNZ and Ofgem’s own published figures show a steady climb through 2021, a sharp spike in 2022, a peak in 2023, and a gradual easing since, with two government support schemes covering part of the worst of it. This guide walks through the numbers, using only DESNZ’s Quarterly Energy Prices statistics and Ofgem’s wholesale market data, both dated as published, so every figure below can be checked against the original release.

What did business energy cost before the crisis?

In 2020, DESNZ recorded the average non-domestic electricity price at 13.76p/kWh and average gas at 2.47p/kWh, including the Climate Change Levy and excluding VAT. Smaller users paid more per unit than larger ones even then, a pattern that holds throughout this history.

Year	Average electricity (p/kWh)	Very small electricity band (p/kWh)	Average gas (p/kWh)	Very small gas band (p/kWh)
2019	12.90	16.71	2.48	4.52
2020	13.76	17.17	2.47	4.87
2021	15.08	17.99	3.07	4.84
2022	20.86	23.84	5.30	7.42
2023	27.20	32.28	6.40	9.69
2024	26.29	32.33	5.67	8.95
2025	24.34	34.93	5.29	8.29

Source: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, annual averages including the Climate Change Levy, excluding VAT, published 30 June 2026. Figures for very small users (under 20,000 kWh a year for electricity) show a wider gap opening up over the period, since fixed costs are spread over less usage the smaller a business is.

What happened in 2021?

Wholesale gas prices climbed steadily through 2021, well before the war in Ukraine began. Ofgem’s monthly wholesale data shows the day-ahead gas price rising from 59.01p a therm in January 2021 to 270.96p a therm by December 2021, and the day-ahead electricity price rising from £90.94/MWh to £262.52/MWh over the same months. Tight global gas supply, a cold start and end to the year, and lower wind output than usual all contributed to a market that was already stretched before 2022 began.

This shows up in DESNZ’s 2021 annual average too: 15.08p/kWh for electricity and 3.07p/kWh for gas, both already above 2020 and 2019 levels, even though the sharpest rises were still to come.

What happened in 2022?

Wholesale prices rose sharply again in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, which reduced pipeline gas flows into Europe. Ofgem’s monthly figures show the day-ahead gas price peaking at 356.00p a therm in August 2022, and electricity peaking at £363.71/MWh in the same month, both roughly six times their January 2021 level. Prices did not stay at that peak all year: by October 2022 gas had fallen back to 109.26p a therm, before rising again to 277.14p a therm in December 2022, illustrating how volatile the market was through this period.

DESNZ’s annual figures for 2022 show average business electricity at 20.86p/kWh and gas at 5.30p/kWh, both well above 2021, but still below the full effect that hit in 2023 as fixed contracts agreed during 2022’s peak worked their way through business bills.

How did the crisis unfold quarter by quarter?

Annual averages smooth over how sharply prices moved within individual years. DESNZ’s quarterly figures show the path more clearly:

Quarter	Average electricity (p/kWh)	Average gas (p/kWh)
2021 Q1	14.81	2.50
2021 Q2	13.58	2.59
2021 Q3	13.91	3.09
2021 Q4	17.73	4.18
2022 Q1	18.14	4.17
2022 Q2	19.33	5.00
2022 Q3	22.20	6.75
2022 Q4	24.80	6.04
2023 Q1	25.37	7.18
2023 Q2	26.88	6.12
2023 Q3	28.33	5.94
2023 Q4	28.39	6.40

Source: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, all-business averages including the Climate Change Levy, excluding VAT. The rise from 2021 Q3 to 2022 Q3, a single year, shows average electricity up by around 60% and gas up by around 118%, illustrating why so many businesses renewing contracts in that window found the market unrecognisable from the one they had left.

Notice that the average gas price actually fell slightly between 2022 Q4 and 2023 Q3, even as electricity kept climbing. Businesses on contracts priced during the second half of 2022, when wholesale costs were at their most volatile, often ended up locked into some of the highest fixed rates of the whole period, regardless of what happened to the wholesale market afterwards. This is one of the clearest illustrations of the point made in our guide to how wholesale energy prices work: your contract rate reflects the market at the time your supplier bought your energy, not the market on the day you are billed.

What was the Energy Bill Relief Scheme?

A government scheme that discounted wholesale energy costs for all non-domestic customers in Great Britain from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. Under the scheme, GOV.UK set a Government Supported Price of £211/MWh for electricity and £75/MWh for gas; where the wholesale element of a business’s contract was priced above that level, suppliers applied a discount automatically, with the government reimbursing suppliers directly. Businesses did not need to apply.

The scheme covered energy usage across that six-month winter period only, and applied to fixed contracts agreed from 1 December 2021 onwards, as well as to deemed, variable and flexible arrangements.

What replaced it, and when did support end?

The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) ran from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, at a lower level of support than the EBRS. GOV.UK’s factsheet, published 9 January 2023, set a standard discount of up to £19.61/MWh for electricity and £6.97/MWh for gas, applied only once wholesale prices rose above thresholds of £302/MWh for electricity and £107/MWh for gas. Businesses in sectors defined as energy and trade intensive received a larger discount, on 70% of their energy volumes, with thresholds and maximum discounts set separately for that group.

Support for all non-domestic customers ended when EBDS closed on 31 March 2024. Business energy has had no government price support scheme in place since.

What has happened to prices since the schemes ended?

DESNZ’s figures show average prices easing gradually since the 2023 peak, without returning to pre-crisis levels. Average electricity fell from 27.20p/kWh in 2023 to 26.29p/kWh in 2024 and 24.34p/kWh in 2025. Gas moved from 6.40p/kWh in 2023 to 5.67p/kWh in 2024 and 5.29p/kWh in 2025.

This masks a divide by business size. The very small electricity band (under 20,000 kWh a year), which includes many microbusinesses, actually rose from 32.28p/kWh in 2023 to 34.93p/kWh in 2025, even as the all-business average fell, because the larger users who dominate the average benefited more from falling wholesale prices while very small users’ bills are proportionately more affected by fixed network and standing charges. Our guides to average business energy bills and standing charges explain this gap further.

The same divide runs through the whole crisis period. DESNZ’s size bands consistently show smaller businesses paying more per kWh than larger ones in every year in this guide’s tables, and that gap widened rather than narrowed through the crisis and its aftermath. A large user with the resources to negotiate a flexible contract, or a multi-site business with in-house expertise, was generally better placed to manage the volatility described above than a single-site microbusiness on a standard fixed deal. Our guide to microbusiness energy covers the specific protections that apply if you fall into that category.

Provisional DESNZ figures for Q1 2026 put the all-business electricity average at 24.14p/kWh and gas at 5.17p/kWh, broadly in line with the 2025 annual figures. You can see the current published quarter on our market data hub, since these numbers update as DESNZ releases new data.

How does 2026 compare with before the crisis?

Prices remain well above 2020 levels, even after two years of easing. Comparing DESNZ’s 2020 and 2025 annual averages, business electricity was up by roughly 77% and gas by roughly 114% over five years, though neither figure accounts for what would have happened to prices anyway without the crisis. Our Business Energy Price Index puts both wholesale and DESNZ business price data on one comparable scale, rebased to a point before the crisis, so you can see the gap that remains without needing to do this arithmetic yourself.

What does this history tell you about your own contract?

Two things stand out from this timeline. First, wholesale prices can move a very long way in a short period, as the 2021 to 2022 rise and the sharp swings within 2022 both show, which is why we do not attempt to forecast future prices; see our guide on business energy prices going forward for how to think about that without a crystal ball. Second, government support schemes for businesses have so far been temporary crisis measures rather than an ongoing safety net, unlike the household price cap, so a business signing a new contract today carries the full wholesale risk unless its contract type says otherwise. Our guide to fixed versus flexible business energy contracts covers how different contract types handled this period differently.

There is also a lesson in timing. Businesses that happened to renew a fixed contract in the calmer months of mid-2021, or that were locked into multi-year deals agreed before the crisis began, were shielded from the worst of the 2022 spike until those contracts ended. Businesses that renewed during the second half of 2022 often fixed at close to the peak. Neither group did anything wrong; the difference was almost entirely down to when their contract happened to end, which is why understanding your own renewal window matters more than trying to time the market. Our guide on when to switch business energy explains how to plan around that window rather than leaving it to chance.

None of the figures in this guide are current prices. They are a historical record, each one dated to the DESNZ or Ofgem release it came from. For what businesses are actually being quoted today, use our market data hub, which pulls the latest published figures automatically rather than repeating a number that will be out of date by the time you read it.

When you are ready to see current market rates rather than historic ones, you can compare business energy quotes with us.

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