Our energy specialists look at what's happening in the energy market in 2024.
22 November - The energy regulator Ofgem has raised the price cap and said that energy bills for a typical household will rise from 1 January 2025. It means someone paying by Direct Debit and using a typical amount of gas and electricity will pay £1,738 a year, or £21 a year more.
14 November - The energy regulator Ofgem has extended a ban onAcquisition-only Tariffs (BAT) following a consultation. Acquisition-only Tariffs (BAT) will continue to be banned until 31 March 2026 with the regulator adding that they were exploring possible reforms to the BAT.
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30 October - In Labour’s first Budget since 2010 the Chancellor said that the government wants to support take-up of electric vehicles. The Budget will maintain existing incentives for EVs in company car tax from 2028. It will also increase the differential between fully electric and other vehicles in the first rates of Vehicle Excise Duty beginning in April 2025.
Referring to the oil & gas industry the chancellor says she will increase the windfall tax on oil and gas profits to 38%, which will now expire in March 2030. The government will remove the 29% investment allowance, to ensure the Chancellor says, that the oil and gas industry can protect jobs and support the UK's energy security.
The government has also set out a new, multi-year investment into carbon capture and storage. Funding will be provided to 11 new green hydrogen projects across England, Scotland and Wales. The Chancellor also confirmed the establishment of GB Energy.
29 October - Cornwall is the heat pump capital of the UK – with 14,043 homes already using the technology according to Uswitch who analysed nearly 26 million EPC certificates. Tamworth in Staffordshire is the region with the fewest heat pumps, with only 20 in total.
15 October - The Energy Crisis Commission has warned that the UK is still “dangerously underprepared” for another energy crisis because it continues to rely on gas for its power generation and home heating.
8 October - The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has published its winter outlook report for 2024-25. NESO says it is confident it can continue to reliably operate a changing electricity system as new technologies, and diverse forms of capacity, contribute to security of supply.
4 October - The new Labour government has pledged £22bn for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production. Carbon capture and storage facilities aim to prevent carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from industrial processes and power stations from being released into the atmosphere. The government hopes the investment will reignite Britain’s struggling heavy industry by funding two major carbon capture and storage (CCS) clusters; one in Teesside in north east England, and a second in north-west England and north Wales.
30 September - UK closes the last coal power station ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel. The plant in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, finished operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a major milestone in the country's ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.
24 September - Britain’s new state-backed power company GB Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen the UK government confirms. Ed Miliband, the UK's energy security and net zero secretary, has said the company will help "to make Britain a clean-energy superpower, with a fully decarbonised power system by 2030”.
13 September - The Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, has confirmed that a new National Energy System Operator (NESO) will launch on 1 October following the government agreeing to acquire the Electricity System Operator (ESO) from National Grid, transferring the ESO into public ownership.
6 September - Ofgem has announced smart meter performance data showing that E.ON Next leads most other large suppliers by keeping meters in smart mode 93.7% of the time.
3 September - Nine offshore wind farm contracts have been awarded by the government and will provide enough electricity to fuel the equivalent of 11 million UK homes, the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero said.
23 August - The energy regulator Ofgem announces that the price cap will change to £1,717 from 1 October 2024 for the annual dual-fuel bill of the typical household.
31 July - The Labour government will make record amounts of funding available to clean energy developers after it increased the value of its summer subsidy auction by 50%, to £1.5bn. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said that the majority of the funding will be available to develop offshore wind power, which the Labour government says it wants to quadruple by 2030. The extra money has been broadly welcomed by the renewables industry, but there are warnings that without other changes, any new projects may not be delivered in time.
30 July - The energy regulator Ofgem has decided to keep the ban on acquisition-only tariffs (BAT), which ensures all customers have access to the best energy deals. Rules preventing energy suppliers from offering lower prices exclusively to new customers will remain in place, after hearing the views of concerned consumer groups and the majority of suppliers demanding fairer treatment for existing customers.
29 July - The government has announced that it will cut winter fuel payments for pensioners. Around 10 million pensioners in England and Wales will lose their winter fuel payments under new plans announced by the chancellor. From this autumn, those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get the annual payments, worth between £100 and £300.
25 July - British seabed owned by the Crown Estate will be used to help build wind farms. It is the first big announcement by Great British Energy, Labour's new publicly owned energy company. Their plans are aimed at making the UK more self reliant for energy. The firm's aim is increase renewable energy projects, boosted by £8.3bn in state funding, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
17 July - The newly elected Labour government has set out its plans for the next parliament in the King’s Speech. Among a number of Bills put forward is one that proposes a new state-owned energy company called Great British Energy.
The firm will invest in renewable energy projects, including emerging technologies like offshore floating wind farms and clean hydrogen. Although it will not be a retail company that sells energy directly to consumers, Labour says it will generate power in its own right, as well as owning, managing and operating clean power projects alongside private firms.
Ministers have also promised legislation to set up a National Wealth Fund, which will invest £7.3bn over five years in infrastructure and green industry.
8 July - The UK government, led by the newly elected Labour Party, has reversed a ban on onshore wind farms. The planning policy change means that decisions should be taken nationally and not locally.
1 July - Ofgem's new price cap comes into force seeing unit prices dropping for most customers until 30 September. However, a volatile energy market has seen wholesale price rises in the first half of 2024 which could mean a rise in the price cap from October.
28 June - In a track test an electric car battery, developed by UK start-up Nyobolt, has successfully charged from 10% to 80% in four minutes and 37 seconds in its first live demonstration. The sports car the Nyobolt battery was fitted to achieved a range of 120 miles after four minutes.
13 June - The National Geothermal Centre (NGC) has launched with support from its collaborators Durham University, Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), SHIFT Geothermal and The Reece Foundation. The NGC is bringing together key stakeholders to enable geothermal development at speed and at scale in Britain. The non-for-profit organisation is looking to develop technology, drive the creation of policy, regulation and investment frameworks for geothermal, and maximise the impact of research and innovation.
11 June - The National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) has proposed to expand the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), financially rewarding consumers and businesses in Great Britain for reducing consumption at times of peak demand. The ESO first introduced its DFS in the winter of 2022-23 as a contingency service, following the rise in international gas prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For 2024 and beyond, the ESO does not plan to bring back DFS as only a winter contingency but has instead proposed a year-round Demand Flexibility Service that would operate as a normal commercial service.
6 June - The National Grid electricity system operator for Great Britain (ESO) has published its ‘early view’ on the electricity demand and capacity for winter 2024/25. The ESO expects to have sufficient operational surplus throughout winter in their Base Case, even when considering the expected natural variation of demand, wind and outages. As with previous winters, there may be some tight days where the ESO says that it may need to use standard operational tools, including the use of system notices.
6 June - Scientists in Scotland have developed a home heating system that draws its energy from water and works using the same technology as an air source heat pump. The equipment can extract warmth from sea, river and pond water to provide homes with heating.
5 June - The next UK government has been urged to capitalise on 30GW of untapped tidal stream energy. The UK Marine Energy Council (MEC) has published recommendations for the country to utilise the tidal and wave energy capacity that the UK possesses.
24 May - The energy regulator Ofgem announces that the price cap will change to £1,568 from 1 July 2024 for the annual dual-fuel bill of the typical household.
14 May - The energy regulator Ofgem has started a statutory consultation on whether to remove the Ban on Acquisition-Only Tariffs (BAT). A ban is currently in place until 31 March 2025 but Ofgem are looking to consult on ending the ban sooner on 1 October 2024. The BAT was originally brought in by Ofgem at the peak of the energy crisis which saw more than 20 energy firms go bust.
16 April - The UK government has set out proposals to utilise energy flexibility and encourage the adoption of smart devices. The regulations are aimed at enhancing the Grid’s stability and to help consumers benefit from the best energy deals via a smart, flexible electricity system.
9 April - A report from Friends of the Earth concludes that England could produce 13 times more renewable energy, using less than 3% of land. Research by Exeter University, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, suggests that onshore wind and solar projects could provide enough electricity to power all the households in England two and half times over.
5 April - UK-based company Space Solar plans to power more than a million homes by the 2030s with a mile-wide complex of mirrors and solar panels orbiting 22,000 miles above the planet.
31 March - Two government energy discount schemes, the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) and the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) ended on 31 March 2024.
25 March - The energy regulator Ofgem launches a consultation into varying the price of energy by the time of day. Ofgem are to consider introducing ‘dynamic’ pricing based on ‘time of use’ so as to encourage consumer flexibility.
12 March - The UK government says that the country needs to build new, gas-fired power stations to ensure the nation’s energy security. The Prime Minister said that the new stations would replace the existing plants, some of which are soon to be retired but said that the plans do not include measures for climate change limiting carbon capture.
23 February - The energy regulator Ofgem announces that the price cap will change to £1,690 from 1 April 2024 for the annual dual-fuel bill of the typical household.
22 February - The UK government confirms its withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty after efforts to agree vital modernisation fail.