According to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets default tariff cap history, the typical dual-fuel direct-debit ceiling peaked at 4,279 pounds a year in the crisis period, and the July 2026 schedule still prices medium TDCV usage in four-figure pounds, see our methodology.
The verdict
Electricity standing charges are up 146% versus the 2021 Q2 baseline, the fixed layer, not unit rates alone, drove much of the post-crisis bill pain for light users.
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Electricity standing charge over time
Pence per day at the default-tariff cap
Live series from cap_period.dd_electricity_standing_p. The 2021→2024 rise uses Apr–Sep 2021 as baseline and the last 2024 quarter as end, never a hand-typed percentage.
Why standing charges exploded
Standing charges recover meter, network, billing, and industry mutualisation costs. After the 2021–2022 supplier-failure wave, Ofgem allowed recovery of failed-supplier costs through standing charges, pushing the daily electricity standing charge well above its pre-crisis level.
Who pays the most
Because standing charges do not scale with kWh, low-use households see them as a larger share of the annual bill. That regressivity is the core of the controversy and the reason reform options keep returning to "tilt more cost into unit rates".
Ofgem's reform options
The 2024 consultation explored lowering standing charges while raising unit rates, banding standing charges by usage, and socialising mutualisation costs differently. No final redesign is assumed here, we track the live series until Ofgem publishes a settled structure.
How to read the trajectory page
The standing-charge trajectory ranks periods and shows the measured path. Use it when a headline quotes a round percentage, the live series is the source of truth.
What to do with this
Do not accept a round standing-charge percentage from memory, check the series.
- Open the standing-charge trajectory ranking Trajectory →
- See how standing share changes by usage profile Bill-split guide →
- Put the fixed layer back in the full cap story Cap guide →
The 2021→2024 rise is electricity standing charge only (Apr–Sep 2021 → last 2024 quarter). Gas and later periods are separate reads.
Related guides
Every figure on PlainEnergyBills is rendered directly from Ofgem source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Standing-charge rise and series are computed from cap_period rows via getElecStandingRise2021to2024() - never hand-typed. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.