What is a standing charge? Paying before you use anything

A standing charge is a fixed daily amount your energy supplier charges you just for being connected, and Ofgem is blunt about it: you pay it every day even if you do not use any energy that day. You have one for electricity and, if you are on the gas grid, a separate one for gas, both shown on your bill in pence per day.

That is why a bill can land for a month when you were away, or when you barely put the heating on, and still run to twenty-odd pounds before a single unit is counted.

What a standing charge pays for, in plain English

Ofgem describes the standing charge as the way suppliers recover the costs of providing energy company services: the wires, pipes and cables that bring power to your door, right through to the staff and buildings needed to run the business.

The House of Commons Library, in its briefing on energy standing charges, breaks the electricity one down further. Just over 60% of the electricity standing charge for the October to December 2026 period is network costs — 22.3 pence a day for the national high-voltage transmission system and 11.6 pence a day for your local distribution network. The transmission part jumped 65% earlier in 2026, almost 9 pence a day, to pay for investment in the grid.

A bit over a quarter goes on suppliers' core operating costs and industry charges, including the cost of the smart meter rollout.

Gas is different. The Commons Library notes there are no network costs in the gas standing charge at all — those are added to the gas unit price instead.

What you pay a day from 1 October 2026

Ofgem sets the price cap every three months for England, Scotland and Wales. For 1 October to 31 December 2026 it announced:

• Electricity: 26.32p per kilowatt hour and a standing charge of 54.83p a day. These exclude VAT, because the government has removed VAT from electricity bills from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027.
• Gas: 7.97p per kilowatt hour and a standing charge of 29.68p a day, including 5% VAT.

Those are averages across England, Scotland and Wales. The cap works out at £1,723 a year for a typical household, up 4% — though Ofgem warns you cannot compare that directly with earlier periods because of the VAT change.

The figures vary by region, because it costs different amounts to move energy around different parts of the country. Ofgem publishes a table of unit rates and standing charges by region and payment method, so look up your own area rather than the national average.

In Northern Ireland the Ofgem cap does not apply at all — the Utility Regulator sets prices there, and tariffs change on their own timetable.

Why your bill is high in a month you barely used anything

Add the two October figures together and a dual-fuel home is paying 84.51p a day before using anything. Worked out from Ofgem's own figures, that is £25.35 over a 30-day month and £308.46 over a full year.

Electricity alone comes to £200.13 a year. Gas alone comes to £108.33 a year.

So if you used very little in a quiet month, the standing charge is most of your bill. That is not a mistake and it is not your supplier padding things out — it is the same charge everyone on a capped standard tariff in your region pays.

It hits hardest if you use little energy: a single person in a small flat, someone away a lot, or a household rationing heat. National Energy Action points out that people who have not used any energy for months, or even years, can still build up unmanageable standing charge debt — and on a prepayment meter that debt comes off the next top-up before you get any warmth.

Can I avoid standing charges? What Ofgem has actually said

Short answer: not really, not yet, and not for free.

Ofgem's position is that if the standing charge were scrapped, suppliers would still have to cover their reasonable costs another way — which means a higher price for every unit you use. In its own words, the costs must be paid: "We cannot remove these charges, we can only move costs around."

Its analysis also found that shifting costs onto usage would help low-income households overall, but a significant number would lose out — around 1.2 million low-income homes with electric heating that use a lot of electricity.

After consulting in autumn 2025, Ofgem launched a one-year lower standing charge tariff pilot from June 2026. Suppliers taking part offer a lower standing charge tariff to eligible customers, starting with some customers of EDF, E.ON, Octopus and British Gas, with a limit on numbers. Alongside it are split standing charge trials, testing whether people will cut peak-time electricity use in return for a rebate on their standing charge.

So as things stand there is no universal right to a zero standing charge tariff. Where a zero standing charge tariff does exist, National Energy Action explains how it usually works: a much higher unit rate for the first couple of units of gas and electricity you use each day, then a lower rate after that. Use nothing on a given day and you pay nothing — use a normal amount and you may well pay more overall.

Ofgem itself says these tariffs are unlikely to reduce bills on their own.

Most of the electricity standing charge pays for the network that reaches your door.

Prepayment, standard credit and Economy 7: how the charge differs

Since 1 April 2024, prepayment and direct debit customers pay the same standing charge. Ofgem calls this levelisation, and the Commons Library explains the mechanism plainly: it is a charge on direct debit customers that funds a reduction for prepayment customers. The old prepayment premium on standing charges is gone.

Standard credit — paying on receipt of a bill, by cash, cheque or bank transfer — still carries a higher standing charge than direct debit. If you can manage a direct debit safely, it is usually the cheaper route; check Ofgem's regional table for the exact gap where you live.

If you have Economy 7 or another multi-register meter, your day and night unit rates differ and Ofgem's regional table lists those separately too. The standing charge still applies once a day, whichever rate you are on overnight.

Work out your real cost a day and a year, from one bill

You do not need a spreadsheet. Find the two lines on your latest bill — unit rate in pence per kilowatt hour and standing charge in pence per day, listed separately for electricity and gas — and write the standing charges down.

Then:

1. Add the electricity and gas standing charges together for your daily total.
2. Multiply by 30 for a month, or by 365 for a year.
3. Compare your figures against Ofgem's table for your region and payment method — not the national average.
4. If yours are noticeably above the cap for your region, ring your supplier and ask why; you may be on an old fixed deal.
5. Check whether the bill covers a period longer than it should, or is based on estimated readings.

Five minutes, and you know exactly how much of your bill lands before you boil a kettle.

Questions people ask

Do I pay a standing charge if the property is empty?

Yes — Ofgem is clear that the charge applies every day regardless of whether you use energy. An empty flat or a home you are away from still racks up roughly 85p a day on dual fuel at October 2026 rates.

Can I get a zero standing charge tariff right now?

Only a limited number of people can. Ofgem's lower standing charge tariff pilot began in June 2026 with a handful of suppliers and a cap on sign-ups, and a few suppliers offer no-standing-charge deals with much higher rates on the first units each day.

Does a smart meter get rid of the standing charge?

No. The charge applies whatever meter you have, and it will keep ticking over on your in-home display even on a day you use nothing.

Why is my electricity standing charge per day different from a friend's?

Ofgem allows the charge to vary by region because it costs different amounts to deliver energy to different parts of the country, and it also varies by payment method. Northern Ireland is outside the Ofgem cap entirely.

My prepayment meter is swallowing my top-up before I get any gas. What do I do?

That is usually standing charge debt building up while you were not topping up. Ring your supplier to ask for a repayment rate you can afford, and get free help from Citizens Advice, StepChange or National Debtline — none of them charge you a penny.

What to do next

• Check your own rates against the cap on our energy bill check, and see what you pay a day and a year on the energy costs page.
• Read the price cap, and what it does not cap before you assume your bill is capped in pounds — it is not.
• If your bill is unaffordable, start with debt letter help and free advice and see whether you are missing anything on the benefits finder.
• Draughty home pushing your usage up? Try the warm home check for grants and the fixes that save most.

Where this comes from

• Energy price cap and standing charges explained — Ofgem
• Energy price cap unit rates and standing charges by region — Ofgem
• Changes to energy price cap between 1 October and 31 December 2026 — Ofgem
• Lower standing charge tariffs: next steps — Ofgem
• Ofgem opens conversation on energy standing charges — Ofgem
• Energy standing charges (CBP-10339) — House of Commons Library
• Standing charges — National Energy Action