Manufacturers’ gas prices more than double year on year

Manufacturers are paying more than two-and-a-half times as much for their gas as they were a year ago, according to new government figures

The latest energy prices statistics published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on Thursday (30 June) show a 162% year-on-year jump in the average price of gas paid by industrial users in the first quarter of 2022.

This figure increased from 1.76 to 4.62p/kWh between the first three months of 2021 and the equivalent period this year.  The bulk of this increase took place in the second half of 2021, according to the BEIS report.

Over the same period, the average price paid for electricity by industrial consumers increased by 66% to 17.15p/kWh.

Average industrial electricity prices in the UK were the second highest amongst a basket of 15 comparable European countries, the report said.

When taxes and levies were stripped out, the UK still had the fourth highest electricity prices for manufacturers.

Across all non-domestic consumers, the average gas price rose by 71% to 3.95p/kW year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022. For all non-domestic consumers, which includes industry as well as other businesses like shops, electricity prices rose by 29% to 18.14p/kWh.

The report said that average electricity prices in the non-domestic sector have been on an “upward trend” over the past decade, with a “sharp rise” since the middle of last year.

Over the same period, electricity and gas prices for domestic consumers rose 17% and 26% respectively. However, this last figure did not take into account April’s sharp increase in the retail energy price cap, the BEIS report said.