Slow electrification is keeping your bills higher than they need to be

The average UK household will pay about £1,923 a year for energy from October, but a chunk of that has nothing to do with gas or electricity prices. Network charges, which cover the cost of pipes, wires, and substations, add roughly £300 a year to a typical dual-fuel bill. And a new report suggests those charges are rising, in part, because the country isn’t electrifying fast enough.

As reported by Energy Voice, the slow rollout of heat pumps and electric vehicles is delaying grid upgrades, meaning the existing infrastructure, much of it built for a fossil-fuel world, must be maintained and patched rather than replaced. That cost lands on every bill.

Why slow electrification hits your standing charge

Ofgem sets network price controls every five years. The current framework, RIIO-2, runs until 2028. But the regulator has already signalled that network costs will rise in the next period as the grid prepares for more electric cars and heat pumps. The catch is that if too few households actually install these technologies, the investment gets spread across a smaller base of users, or gets delayed altogether, keeping old, less efficient assets in service.

Energy Voice’s analysis cites industry data showing that the UK is on track to miss its 2030 heat pump installation targets by roughly 60%. That gap means the grid operator cannot justify building the capacity needed to serve a fully electrified housing stock. Instead, it spends billions maintaining legacy gas pipes that will eventually be redundant. Those costs are socialised across all 28 million households.

What it costs a typical 3-bed semi

Take a semi-detached house in the Midlands using 12,000 kWh of gas and 3,000 kWh of electricity per year. Network charges currently add about £120 to the electricity bill and £180 to the gas bill, £300 total. If electrification accelerates, gas network costs would fall as fewer homes use gas, but electricity network costs would rise in the short term to pay for new cables and substations.

The net effect, according to modelling by the Energy Systems Catapult, could be an extra £50–£100 a year on the average dual-fuel bill by 2030, even if wholesale prices stay flat. That’s the price of delay: you pay for the old system while also paying for the new one.

Who benefits, and who doesn’t

Households that electrify early, installing a heat pump, solar panels, and an EV charger, face a higher upfront cost but lower running costs. A heat pump can cut heating bills by 20–40% compared with a gas boiler, and solar panels can reduce electricity costs by 50% or more. But the upfront cost of a heat pump is typically £7,000–£13,000 after the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, and solar panels run £5,000–£8,000.

Households that stick with gas, meanwhile, avoid the upfront cost but pay ever-higher standing charges as the fixed costs of the gas network are spread over fewer users. Ofgem has warned that gas standing charges could rise by 30% by 2030 if electrification accelerates as planned. So the choice is not between paying and not paying, it’s between paying now for your own kit or paying later on your bill for everyone else’s.

What you can do now

First, check your EPC rating. Homes with an EPC of C or above are better suited to heat pumps and will qualify for the full Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant. Second, get a quote from at least two MCS-certified heat pump installers. Third, consider a smart tariff like Octopus Agile or OVO’s Charge Anytime, which can cut electricity costs if you shift usage to off-peak hours.

The government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, set a target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. Current installations are running at about 60,000 per year. Until that gap closes, network costs will keep rising, and your bill will keep paying for the delay.