Energy prices in Southern Scotland
Southern Scotlandis one of the fourteen distribution regions Great Britain’s electricity is priced by. Every figure on this page is published for this region specifically — the cap, the prices households here have actually paid, the carbon forecast and the network’s own reliability record. Nothing here is a national average wearing a regional label.
What a distribution region is
It is the area served by one electricity network operator: the company that owns the wires, the substations and the poles, and that turns up when the power goes off. It is decided by where a property is, not by who supplies it, and it cannot be switched. Two identical houses on identical tariffs in different regions pay different standing charges, and this is why.
Ofgem sets its price cap separately for each region, because the cost of delivering energy differs by region. A sparse area with long overhead lines costs more per household to serve than a dense one where everything is underground and heavily interconnected.
The price cap here, and how it ranks
Ofgem cap · Direct Debit · July 2026 to September 2026
How Southern Scotland compares with the other 13 regions
The electricity unit rate here is 5th cheapest of the 14 distribution regions. The gas unit rate is 2nd cheapest of the 14 distribution regions.
| Region | Electricity unit rate | Standing charge | Gas unit rate | Typical dual fuel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 25.10p | 53.60p a day | 7.19p | £1,611 |
| North East England | 25.22p | 64.29p a day | 7.28p | £1,663 |
| Yorkshire | 25.31p | 64.38p a day | 7.27p | £1,664 |
| West Midlands | 25.33p | 59.71p a day | 7.27p | £1,648 |
| Southern ScotlandThis region | 25.85p | 64.17p a day | 7.23p | £1,674 |
| North West England | 26.13p | 47.61p a day | 7.24p | £1,621 |
| South Wales | 26.33p | 57.84p a day | 7.42p | £1,682 |
| London | 26.35p | 44.78p a day | 7.50p | £1,642 |
| Eastern England | 26.38p | 53.94p a day | 7.26p | £1,651 |
| South West England | 26.39p | 57.89p a day | 7.48p | £1,686 |
| Southern England | 26.42p | 49.70p a day | 7.53p | £1,661 |
| Northern Scotland | 26.42p | 57.55p a day | 7.23p | £1,664 |
| South East England | 26.67p | 54.45p a day | 7.39p | £1,672 |
| Merseyside and North Wales | 27.66p | 70.76p a day | 7.28p | £1,748 |
Great Britain average, for reference: 26.11p for electricity, 7.33p for gas. Ofgem publishes this as a cap region, but no household is in it — it is an average of the fourteen real ones and is deliberately left out of the ranking above.
All prices include VAT at 5%. The typical annual figure is Ofgem’s own illustration for a household using a typical amount of energy, not a limit on what anyone can be charged. Source: Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Ofgem.
The rates in full
Direct Debit rates, including VAT at 5%. Standard credit and prepayment are capped separately and are shown on the price cap page, which carries the payment-method selector.
Electricity, single rate
Unit rate
25.85p
per kWh
Standing charge
64.17p
per day
At Ofgem's 2,500 kWh benchmark: £880 a year.
Electricity, Economy 7
Unit rate
24.20p
per kWh
Standing charge
64.70p
per day
At Ofgem's 3,400 kWh benchmark: £1,059 a year.
Blended benchmark equivalent; actual peak and off-peak rates vary by tariff.
Gas
Unit rate
7.23p
per kWh
Standing charge
29.24p
per day
At Ofgem's 9,500 kWh benchmark: £794 a year.
What households here have actually paid
The cap is a ceiling Ofgem sets today. The series below is something different: the average of what suppliers actually billed households in this region across each whole calendar year, including the years before the cap existed. The two are not points on one line and are not drawn as though they were.
Since 2010
What households here were actually charged — South Scotland
These are averages of what suppliers actually billed across each calendar year, including VAT — not cap levels, and not a ceiling. The cap only began in 2019, so most of this series predates it.
Electricity
Figures before 2013 are for one town in the region, named in the table, rather than the region as a whole.
| Year | Unit price | Fixed cost | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 11.3p | £40 | Edinburgh |
| 2011 | 11.7p | £58 | Edinburgh |
| 2012 | 12.2p | £62 | Edinburgh |
| 2013 | 12.7p | £72 | Whole region |
| 2014 | 13.0p | £75 | Whole region |
| 2015 | 12.7p | £74 | Whole region |
| 2016 | 12.5p | £72 | Whole region |
| 2017 | 13.7p | £73 | Whole region |
| 2018 | 15.1p | £81 | Whole region |
| 2019 | 16.6p | £85 | Whole region |
| 2020 | 16.7p | £84 | Whole region |
| 2021 | 18.3p | £87 | Whole region |
| 2022 | 27.9p | £150 | Whole region |
| 2023 | 30.7p | £207 | Whole region |
| 2024 | 25.3p | £227 | Whole region |
| 2025 | 24.9p | £214 | Whole region |
Gas
Figures before 2018 are for one town in the region, named in the table, rather than the region as a whole.
| Year | Unit price | Fixed cost | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 3.1p | £70 | Edinburgh |
| 2011 | 3.3p | £96 | Edinburgh |
| 2012 | 3.7p | £99 | Edinburgh |
| 2013 | 4.0p | £94 | Edinburgh |
| 2014 | 4.1p | £88 | Edinburgh |
| 2015 | 3.9p | £79 | Edinburgh |
| 2016 | 3.5p | £78 | Edinburgh |
| 2017 | 3.5p | £79 | Edinburgh |
| 2018 | 3.6p | £81 | Whole region |
| 2019 | 3.7p | £90 | Whole region |
| 2020 | 3.4p | £91 | Whole region |
| 2021 | 3.3p | £93 | Whole region |
| 2022 | 7.2p | £100 | Whole region |
| 2023 | 8.6p | £104 | Whole region |
| 2024 | 6.5p | £111 | Whole region |
| 2025 | 6.3p | £114 | Whole region |
Electricity is priced by whole region from 2013; gas only from 2018. Before those years each figure is a price for one selected town, named on the point. So electricity and gas are on different bases for 2013 to 2017 and should not be charted against each other across that period without saying so.
The fixed cost is not purely a standing charge: where a tariff has two unit prices it also carries the difference between them multiplied by the split level. A (p) marks a provisional figure that may be revised. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The cleanest hours ahead
Forecast · next 48 hours
The cleanest hours ahead in Southern Scotland
Every carbon figure here is a forecast. Regional carbon intensity is modelled from national generation and estimated flows between regions — it is never measured at a region’s boundary, so no later outturn confirms or corrects it. It genuinely differs by region: the same half hour is a different number in Scotland and in London, because the generation nearest each is different.
Cleanest half hour
Fri 21:00
1 gCO₂/kWh
Cheapest half hour
Sat 12:30
-4.20p/kWh on Agile Octopus
The cheapest half hour is a half-hourly tariff’s price, not everyone’s. On a flat standard variable rate the price at 3am is the price at 6pm, so there is a cleanest hour here and no cheapest one.
The network that serves this region
Ofgem RIIO-ED2 · 2024/25
Who keeps Southern Scotland’s lights on, and how well
The wires here are run by SP Energy Networks. You cannot switch network operator — it depends on where you live, not on who you buy electricity from — so this is the performance you get.
- Power cuts per 100 customers
- 31.3against a target of 41.8
Better than the target Ofgem set this area. 4 of 14 networks on this measure, best first. The industry average is 39.7.
Counted per interruption, so one household cut off twice counts twice.
- Minutes without power per customer
- 25.8against a target of 29.6
Better than the target Ofgem set this area. 3 of 14 networks on this measure, best first. The industry average is 35.1.
Averaged across the year and across every customer the area serves.
Customer satisfaction: 9.3 score out of 10 for 2024/25. Satisfaction runs the other way from the two measures above — a higher score is better — and it is a different question from reliability: it is about how the network handled the contact, not whether the power stayed on.
RIIO-ED1 set different targets, so figures before the current regulatory period are not a continuation of this series. Source: Ofgem. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
Figures for your own council
Consumption per household, EPC band mix, fuel poverty, smart-meter uptake and the heating fuel split are not on this page, and their absence is deliberate. Every one of them is published per local authority, and a local authority is not a distribution region: council boundaries follow administrative history, network boundaries follow where the wires run, and neither publisher issues a crosswalk between them. Adding them up into a regional figure would mean inventing the mapping, which would look authoritative and be wrong at every boundary.
They are on energy use in your area, where each figure carries a label saying which area it actually covers. It resolves from a postcode that is never stored.
Frequently asked questions
What is an electricity region, and how do I know which I am in?
Great Britain is divided into fourteen distribution regions, each served by one network operator. Your region is decided by where you live, not by who supplies your energy, and you cannot change it. It is the reason two households on identical tariffs pay different standing charges. Your bill names it, and a postcode lookup will resolve it if it does not.
Why are energy prices different in different regions?
Mostly the cost of running the local network. Delivering electricity to a sparse rural area with long overhead lines costs more per household than to a dense urban one, and those costs are recovered through the standing charge and the unit rate. Ofgem sets a separate cap for each region to reflect that, so the cap is a different number in each.
Does switching supplier change my region?
No. The region follows the wires, not the contract. Switching changes who bills you and what tariff you are on; it does not change which network delivers your electricity or which regional cap applies to a standard variable tariff.
Is the price cap the most I can be charged?
No. It caps unit rates and standing charges on a standard variable tariff, not the total bill. The headline annual figure Ofgem announces each quarter is an illustration for a household using a typical amount of energy. Use more and you pay more.
Why does this page not show consumption or EPC ratings for my area?
Because those are published per local authority, and a local authority is not a distribution region. Councils straddle network boundaries and no publisher issues a crosswalk between the two, so any regional total would be an estimate presented as a fact. Those figures are on the area energy use page, shown at the grain they are actually published at.
Related reading

Written by
Rob Gibbs
Hi, I'm Rob, and I run Energy-Review.co.uk. I initially started this project in 2018 when I was looking to switch energy suppliers and found there wasn't a website that provided simple, data-backed reviews on all the suppliers available. Since then, I have spent a lot of time (too much, some may say!) looking at all publicly available data about each supplier and writing reviews using this information. These reviews are updated as regularly as possible, and any data is backed up by a source where necessary. I have also started writing guides on various energy-related topics, which hopefully you will find useful. If you find any issues, please use our contact form to let us know.
