Standing Charges Are Changing, What It Could Mean If You Have Solar
Ofgem has been trying to figure out what to do about standing charges for a couple of years now, and the policy has moved twice already in 2026. What’s actually landing is a pilot, not the market-wide rule that was first proposed, and it’s worth understanding both what changed and why it might matter more to you than to the average bill-payer.
What a standing charge actually is
It’s the fixed daily fee on your electricity bill that you pay regardless of how much you use, currently sitting somewhere around 45p to 60p a day depending on your region and supplier. It covers network costs, supplier operating costs and various policy levies. Unlike the unit rate, it doesn’t move with your consumption, which is exactly why it’s controversial: a low-usage household pays the same standing charge as a high-usage one.
What Ofgem actually confirmed, and what it walked back
Ofgem’s original plan was to require every major supplier to offer at least one lower-standing-charge tariff, available across Great Britain, by the end of January 2026. That plan ran into a consultation response most suppliers and several consumer groups didn’t like, and it’s since been scaled down to a one-year pilot starting in June 2026, involving four suppliers so far: EDF, E.ON, Octopus and British Gas. Ofgem says it’s open to other suppliers joining.
The trade-off is explicit and Ofgem isn’t hiding it. In its own words, the costs currently covered by the standing charge “ultimately must be paid,” so a lower standing charge tariff comes with a higher unit rate to make up the difference. Ofgem estimates a typical dual-fuel household on the pilot tariff could see roughly £150 a year off their standing charge, offset by paying more per unit.
Why this leans in favour of solar and battery households
A flat trade of “lower fixed charge, higher unit rate” is a worse deal for someone who uses a lot of grid electricity, and a better one for someone who uses relatively little. That’s precisely the shape of a household with solar, and more so one with a battery on top: you’re still connected to the grid every day, so the standing charge still applies in full, but you’re buying fewer of the actual units that a higher rate would sting you on.
Put simply, the households the pilot was designed to help are low-usage households in general, and off-grid-leaning solar homes happen to be one of the more common versions of that. If you’re weighing whether to switch onto a pilot tariff once your supplier offers one, your own grid-import total (not your total electricity use, just what you actually buy in) is the number that decides whether it’s worth it.
What to actually do about it right now
Not much, yet. The pilot doesn’t start until June 2026 and enrolment is being deliberately limited so Ofgem can gather clean data, so it won’t be a universal option even once it launches. If you’re with EDF, E.ON, Octopus or British Gas, it’s worth watching for an offer to switch tariff type rather than assuming you need to act. For everyone else, the sensible move is the one you should be doing anyway: check your annual grid-import total against your current standing charge and unit rate whenever you compare tariffs, because that’s exactly the comparison this pilot is designed to test.
Bottom line
This isn’t a bill cut dressed up as reform, Ofgem has said as much directly. But for a household that’s already reduced how much it buys from the grid, a lower fixed charge and a higher unit rate is a trade worth taking, even if it’s a wash or a loss for the average home next door. It’s one more reason the economics of adding a battery to an existing solar system keep shifting in the same direction. See our home battery guide for how that trade-off currently pencils out.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Ofgem's lower standing charge tariff pilot?
A one-year pilot starting in June 2026, run with EDF, E.ON, Octopus and British Gas, offering eligible customers a tariff with a lower daily standing charge in exchange for a higher price per unit of electricity. Ofgem originally proposed making this mandatory for all suppliers but scaled it back to a limited pilot after pushback from consumer groups and most suppliers themselves.
Will a lower standing charge tariff save me money?
It depends how much electricity you use. Ofgem's own position is that this doesn't reduce the total cost being recovered, it just shifts more of it onto the unit rate, so low-usage households come out ahead and high-usage households come out behind. Ofgem estimates a typical dual-fuel household could save around £150 a year on standing charges, before accounting for the higher unit rate.
Does a lower standing charge tariff suit solar households better?
Potentially, yes. A tariff that trades a lower fixed daily charge for a higher unit rate rewards anyone who buys less electricity from the grid, and a solar system, especially one paired with a battery, is specifically designed to reduce grid purchases. The fixed charge applies whether you draw 1kWh or 20kWh that day, so cutting it helps most on days your panels are doing the heavy lifting.