Once your sites move beyond simple SME meters — half-hourly supplies, high consumption, multiple premises — electricity stops having a list price. Commercial electricity is priced bespoke against your consumption data, capacity and risk profile. That is where good procurement earns its keep.
What you get
Commercial contracts are where the biggest savings hide — and where the worst contracts do too. The difference is scrutiny.
Indicative July 2026 positioning by supply type. Larger supplies carry lower unit rates but more moving parts — and more places for cost to hide.
| Supply type | Typical profile | Indicative unit rate | What drives the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard commercial (NHH) | Offices, shops, light industrial | 25–28p/kWh | Consumption, region, meter profile class |
| Maximum demand | Larger sites with recorded peak demand | 24–27p/kWh | Peak demand, load factor, capacity |
| Half-hourly (HH) | Sites over ~100kW peak; mandatory HH metering | 23–26p/kWh + charges | HH consumption data, capacity (kVA), DUoS bands |
| Flexible / basket | Large consumers and portfolios buying in tranches | Wholesale + costs | Purchasing strategy, timing, clip sizes |
Indicative ranges for July 2026, excluding VAT and CCL. Half-hourly and flexible supplies also carry itemised capacity, availability and non-commodity charges that materially affect the true cost — comparing unit rates alone is meaningless at this scale.
HH meters record consumption every 30 minutes, which means suppliers price your actual usage shape rather than a generic profile. A flat, predictable load prices beautifully; a peaky one does not. We analyse your HH data before going to market, so quotes reflect your real shape — and so we know when a supplier is padding.
Half-hourly sites pay for agreed available capacity (kVA) whether they use it or not, and unused headroom is pure waste. Many sites still carry capacity set decades ago for machinery that left the building. A capacity review is often the fastest saving on a commercial supply, and no supplier will suggest it unprompted.
Fixing everything gives budget certainty and zero market opportunity. Flexible purchasing buys energy in tranches, letting you average into the market — powerful in falling markets, demanding in rising ones. For most mid-size commercial consumers, the honest answer is a well-timed fix; for the largest, a managed flexible strategy. We will tell you which side of that line you are on.
Bundling multiple sites into one basket usually improves pricing and always simplifies administration. But co-terminating end dates takes planning, and some sites are better priced outside the basket in a different region or supplier. Portfolio procurement is a strategy, not a stapler.
Our fee is agreed upfront and disclosed in writing before you sign. It may be paid directly or collected via the supplier as a transparent p/kWh uplift. The exact amount depends on consumption, contract length, and service scope.
As a guide, our fee is typically 1–2p per kWh on electricity and approximately 1p per kWh on gas.
One adviser reviews your situation, checks the market, and gives you a straight answer. No portals. No pressure. No tariff confetti.
As of July 2026, larger commercial supplies are typically quoted between roughly 23p and 28p per kWh depending on supply type, region and usage shape — with half-hourly and flexible contracts adding itemised capacity and non-commodity charges on top. At this scale the unit rate is only part of the true cost.
A supply where the meter records consumption every 30 minutes and the data is used for settlement. Mandatory for sites with peak demand over 100kW, and increasingly common below that under market-wide half-hourly settlement. HH sites are priced individually against their consumption data.
A monthly charge for the maximum electrical capacity reserved for your site by the network. If your agreed capacity is well above your actual peak demand, you are paying for headroom you never use — and it can usually be reduced through a formal application.
It depends on consumption size, risk appetite and internal resource. Flexible purchasing rewards businesses that can act on the market; fixed contracts reward those that value certainty. We advise on both and are candid about which genuinely suits you — flexibility sold to a business that never trades is just a fixed price with extra steps.