What does a British resident’s electricity bill look like, and what breakdown items does it include?

Firstly, the electricity bill tells you the average household electricity bill for the year in pounds sterling. The bill includes the following breakdown items:

—Power supply wholesale cost (accounting for about 48.5%)

Energy suppliers purchase electricity from generators on the wholesale market to meet customer demand. Also included are capacity market costs, a mechanism used to ensure there is sufficient spare capacity in the power system.

—Power grid costs (accounting for about 20.6%)

These include distribution and transmission, maintaining, operating and upgrading the high-voltage, long-distance transmission network; and “balancing” charges to ensure supply and demand always match.

—Operating costs (10.9%)

The supplier’s own retail electricity costs, including items such as customer support, billing and meter installation.

—Policy costs (accounting for about 12.4%)

Government energy policies support energy efficiency improvements and help disadvantaged groups; and increase renewable energy generation.