TRANSPARENT BY DESIGN
A source for every number.
Different utilities have different markets, geographical coverage and reporting schedules. We show those differences instead of presenting every figure as a live local price. Each section starts with a short summary; open “Technical detail” for the full method.
The electricity map
The map shows Great Britain’s latest published electricity mix and carbon intensity, updated every half hour by the source. It is a picture of the national grid, not a live reading of your own supply.
The Carbon Intensity API supplies the latest published Great Britain generation mix and carbon intensity. The half-hourly mix includes estimates of embedded generation. Renewable share is wind, solar, hydro and biomass added together. Imports are a separate category. Northern Ireland is outside this GB mix and has a separate area selection.
Technical detail
We poll every two minutes while the page is visible and refresh when you return to the tab; that does not make the underlying readings two-minute measurements. Readings more than 90 minutes old are labelled delayed. The 24-hour slider uses published historical mix records.
Pumped storage is not automatically renewable generation. Carbon intensity is labelled actual or forecast according to the source, with its own observation time and delayed label after 90 minutes.
Northern Ireland electricity
Northern Ireland is shown separately, using quarter-hourly demand, generation, wind and solar readings in megawatts from EirGrid. These are never added to the GB percentages.
The Northern Ireland area uses the EirGrid Group Smart Grid Dashboard for quarter-hourly system demand, system generation, wind and solar readings in MW. Wind and solar are parts of generation, while demand is a separate measure. System generation excludes some unmonitored small-scale generation. Supported by EirGrid Group Data, used under its Open Data Licence. This attribution does not imply endorsement.
Technical detail
Each metric retains its own observation time. Source chart code interprets these timestamps as UTC; we parse them explicitly as UTC and display London time. Future observations, missing values and invalid readings are excluded. Readings older than 45 minutes are marked delayed. The endpoint checks the current and previous UTC days to retain the last valid reading around midnight.
These values are not added to the GB percentage mix: EirGrid’s fuel-mix totals cover 24 hours, a different period. Northern Ireland readings refresh on area selection and during visible polling.
How the 3D map is drawn
The map is a picture of the latest published fuel mix. Each fuel has its own model in its own colour, matching the mix list: turbines for wind, panels for solar, a power house for gas, two cooling towers for nuclear, storage domes for biomass and a dam for hydro. The bigger a fuel’s share, the more of its sites you see. Places are real but approximate, and no landmark shows that station’s own output.
Each fuel’s share of Great Britain’s generation sets how strongly it is drawn. Sites light up largest first, up to a limit for each fuel so the map never fills with one kind (12 wind farms, 6 gas stations, 6 solar arrays, 4 nuclear, 3 hydro and 2 biomass stations). Each site stands on a plinth edged in its fuel colour. Rotors turn faster as the wind share rises, and once wind passes about 18% faint wind streaks cross the country. Solar panels glow brighter by day, with the sun placed where it was at the time of the reading; at night the scene dims. Gas and biomass stations release a short plume, nuclear towers give off steam and glow steadily, hydro schemes ripple, and pulses travel along Great Britain’s electricity interconnectors in proportion to net imports. Imports are published as one total, so every interconnector is drawn the same way. Scrubbing the 24-hour history replays the picture through the day. In Northern Ireland, wind and solar are shown as shares of system generation.
Gas, nuclear, biomass and hydro landmarks are major operating stations at approximate locations; the unnamed solar arrays stand in for the many smaller solar farms and rooftops across southern Britain.
Weather data comes from MET Norway, licensed under CC BY 4.0. We sample hourly model conditions at the approximate reference point of each of the 38 mapped UK wind farms. The displayed wind is a 10 m model estimate, not a turbine sensor reading or a measurement at hub height. “Windiest mapped farm” means the highest valid estimate among those samples, not the windiest point anywhere in the UK.
One illustrative turbine represents each wind farm, and the station models are symbols rather than likenesses: not every nuclear station has cooling towers. No plant-level generation is claimed.
Technical detail
Wind streaks travel downwind; turbine heads turn to face into the modelled wind. Meteorological directions name where wind comes from, clockwise from north. Turbine animation is illustrative, capped in speed, and stopped below 3 m/s or at 25 m/s and above. Real turbine controls differ.
Weather valid times must be within 90 minutes, with a model issue time within 12 hours, to animate. Weather is hidden during historical electricity playback. Geography uses Natural Earth public-domain map data.
The 38 selected wind farms (32 in Great Britain and six in Northern Ireland) use the DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database, July 2026 (Q2), updated 3 August 2026, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These projects were listed as Operational in that snapshot. British National Grid project reference points are converted to longitude and latitude; these are approximate locations, not turbine coordinates. Whitelee, Clyde and Race Bank phases are grouped. Listed capacity comes from the same dated database and is not current output. This is a curated selection, not a complete inventory. Other station and interconnector landing locations are approximate public locations checked in October 2026 and are illustrative.
Drawing strength rises with the square root of each fuel’s share against a full-strength share for that fuel (wind 50%, solar 35%, gas 45%, nuclear 18%, biomass 10%, hydro 4%, imports 25%), so small shares stay visible without looking dominant. Shares under 0.5% are not drawn.
Cross-border gas flows
The gas routes show measured flows through selected pipelines to and from Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Ireland. They are flow rates at that moment, not the total imported so far today.
The National Gas instantaneous flow service provides terminal measurements. We show selected connections to Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Ireland. Units are million cubic metres per day: an instantaneous flow rate expressed on a daily basis, not the volume already imported that day. Pipeline routes are schematic.
Technical detail
For the Belgium and Netherlands connections, net direction is calculated from entry minus exit at a matching observation time. Both readings are required. Norway uses the measured entry at Easington Langeled; Ireland uses the measured exit at Moffat. Expired or missing readings do not become zero. Readings more than 40 minutes old are marked delayed and their animation stops.
Household electricity and gas
Household prices are Ofgem’s price-cap rates for each region, for Direct Debit customers on a standard variable tariff. They are a benchmark for the period shown, not a quote and not a cap on your total bill.
Energy cards use Ofgem’s regional cap tables for October–December 2026. The displayed payment method is Direct Debit with single-rate electricity. Tax follows Ofgem’s period-specific guidance: 0% electricity VAT in this period, and 5% gas VAT included. A price cap is not a cap on the total bill or an average of every deal available.
Technical detail
We derive pence-per-day standing charges from the annual nil-consumption charge, and pence-per-kWh from the difference between the typical-consumption and nil-consumption annual charges. Published annual inputs are rounded, so derived rates are benchmarks rather than supplier-specific quotes. Prices are versioned snapshots, with effective dates displayed; they do not automatically refresh from a live tariff exchange.
Business electricity and gas
Business prices are government averages of what UK businesses actually paid in a past quarter, grouped by how much energy they use. They help you sense-check a quote but are not current offers or regional prices.
DESNZ non-domestic prices are quarterly, consumption-weighted, fully delivered historical prices paid. Our current dataset covers April–June 2026 and was published on 29 September 2026. Figures include Climate Change Levy and exclude VAT. These UK-wide averages are not regional prices or current quotes. A quote requires site and contract details. Business water is also site specific; no household average is substituted for it.
Technical detail
Standing-charge costs are already reflected within the effective p/kWh. The consumption bands are used as published.
Water
Water bills are averages by water company in England and Wales, average and Council Tax band charges in Scotland, and an explanation of the different arrangements in Northern Ireland. Your water company is chosen separately from your energy region.
Water UK’s 2026/27 company averages cover forecast household annual bills in England and Wales. We separate combined water/sewerage bills from water-only bills. An energy region does not determine your water company, so the water-area selector is independent of the GB energy-region selector.
For Scotland, Scottish Water’s 2026/27 announcement supplies the £532 household average and standard unmetered charges for Council Tax bands A–H. In Northern Ireland, separate domestic charges remain deferred according to NI Water’s March 2026 announcement. We display that arrangement rather than a £0 tariff. All water figures are dated source snapshots, not live tariffs.
Technical detail
Scottish band charges exclude Council Tax itself and are shown before discounts or reductions. Choose only the water and waste water services connected to the property. The published average is not the Band D charge. Metered homes and private supplies need separate information; see Scottish Water’s household guidance.
In Northern Ireland, non-domestic properties, including farms and mixed-use premises, have different rules. Connection and other service charges are outside this summary.
Seasonal usage estimates
The seasonal planner spreads your annual usage across the year using the average UK pattern from 2023 to 2025. It is a broad planning guide, not a weather or usage forecast.
The seasonal planner uses UK quarterly consumption from DESNZ Energy Trends 4.1 (gas) and 5.2 (electricity), published 29 September 2026. Household, industry (iron and steel plus other industries), and other final users remain separate. Household and other-user electricity excludes electric vehicles. This is a broad national historical planning model, not a local weather prediction or a personalised consumption forecast.
Technical detail
It uses complete years 2023–2025. For each year we divide each quarter by the sum of that year’s four quarters, then average the three sets of shares equally. We multiply your annual usage by those shares and allocate each quarter evenly across its days. The selected three calendar months can cross quarters or years; leap days are included.
The displayed low–high range uses each of the three historical patterns separately and is not a probability interval. Source values, row labels, cell references and file checksums are retained with the project. Refresh the dataset annually when another complete year is published.
Calculators and publication
Calculators use the numbers you enter and show their formulas. News articles are drafted with AI from official sources, cite every paragraph and are checked before publication.
Calculators explain their formulas and limits. The 90-day price change planner is a scenario, not a forecast. Appliance comparisons use the same figures and assumed use as each appliance’s own page, at the GB average cap rate. Example inputs are not offered tariffs. Guides disclose AI assistance and link to original sources. Read our editorial and AI policy →
Technical detail
The publishing service chooses supporting evidence from connected official sources, writes articles and runs an independent AI fact check. Articles that cannot be verified are held for attention. Prepared drafts are checked again before scheduled publication. The homepage announcement feed shows Department for Energy Security and Net Zero items selected for relevance to bills using a published keyword rule; when too few match, the most recent items are shown.
When data is unavailable
If a source fails or goes out of date, we say so. We never fill gaps with made-up readings.
Feed failures are shown openly. We do not generate plausible-looking replacement readings. The 3D scene is an illustration of published data, not an operational control room or a complete measurement of UK energy use.