Your energy bills include a charge for your usage during the billing period plus the standing charge, any discounts you have from your supplier and tax.

• Energy consumption: You’re charged a set rate for each kilowatt-hour of electricity or gas you use. This unit rate will depend on the region in which you live, which supplier you use and which tariff you’re on. These unit rates will stay the same for the duration of any fixed-rate energy tariff but fluctuate on variable rate tariffs. The national averages are [insert] p/kWh for electricity and [insert] p/kWh for gas. The charge for consumption is calculated by multiplying your usage in kWh by the unit rate.
• Standing charge: This is the amount your supplier charges you to maintain your connection and service your account. According to the Energy Savings Trust, standing charges for electricity are around 20p per day but you may be charged anything between 5p and 60p per day. Standing charges for gas are slightly higher at 24p per day and range between 10p and 80p per day.
• Discounts: Your supplier may give you discounts on your bill if you pay by direct debit or have a dual-fuel tariff, which means you get your gas and electricity from the same supplier.
• Tax: Electricity and gas are subject to VAT at 5%.

If you have a fixed-rate energy tariff, the per-unit price you pay remains constant until the tariff ends. With variable-rate tariffs, that figure fluctuates and with it your energy bills. So what impacts the price we all pay for energy? Myriad factors: economic, geopolitical, regulatory, meteorological… Even Brexit has a role to play.

• Supply: This means the amount of electricity that is generated in the UK, by renewable technologies or fossil fuel plants, or in neighbouring countries and sent here through undersea interconnectors. It also means the amount of natural gas available in the UK, either drilled from the North Sea or imported, primarily from Norway, the Netherlands and Qatar. When supplies are tight, prices rise.
• Demand: The amount of energy Britons are consuming. Demand is usually higher in the winter, driving up prices, particularly if supplies are tighter. Conversely, when the coronavirus lockdowns shuttered manufacturing and office blocks, the UK’s and the world’s energy consumption fell, leading to lower prices.
• Weather: We consume more energy during cold spells and winter storms, driving up energy prices. The weather also impacts the productivity of renewable sources of power. Winter storms can also bolster generation from wind power, while sunny days can boost solar power, leading to cheaper prices. On cloudy, still days, prices can rise and expensive, polluting fossil-fuel plants come online. As the UK develops more battery storage infrastructure, we’ll be able to make even more use of cheap, intermittent renewables.
• Energy mix: Renewable technologies produce electricity more cheaply per megawatt-hour than other forms of generation and their prices are expected to continue falling. As they make up greater portions of our energy mix, electricity prices are expected to fall.
• Regulation: Suppliers don’t just procure electricity and gas to match their customers’ use. They’re also required to pay into schemes that, for example, support renewable generation and help customers improve the energy efficiency and warmth of their homes. These costs are eventually passed onto consumers. For instance, suppliers are carrying out the installation of smart meters, which will give us better insight into our home energy use and eliminate the need for manual meter readings and estimated bills. The rollout is expected to cost £13.5 billion, which will be felt through our bills over the next few years. Meanwhile, some regulation, like the energy price cap, limits the amount suppliers can charge us.
• International politics: The UK imports 60% of our natural gas and a small percentage of our electricity, expected to increase to 20% by 2025. That means energy prices here are impacted by conditions in other countries and our relationship with those nations. For example, energy companies have warned that a no-deal Brexit could mean the UK faces third-party charges to use the cables through which electricity is traded with Europe.