Non-commodity charges for 2026

Publish date: 17/02/2026
Read time: 4 minutes

Non‑commodity prices are appearing across UK energy news right now because major regulated cost increases are hitting businesses from late‑2025 into 2026, and these charges make up the majority of an energy bill, far more than the wholesale energy itself. William Cartwright, Industry Forecast Manager here at TotalEnergies. delves into the latest wave of changes, including the introduction of schemes such as the Nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB) and the Energy Intensive Industry (EII) Support Levy, as well as significant increases to Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) and gas transportation rates. William also explores government measures aimed at easing energy bills, the shifting impact of Renewable Obligation (RO) and Feed in Tariff (FiT) schemes, and upcoming support for specific business sectors. Read on for a breakdown of the most important developments, what they mean for bill payers, and what to watch out for this year.

Changes & Updates

Changes and updates seem to be coming thick and fast in the non-commodity world, partly due to the ongoing balancing act the government is facing with their pledges around net zero and not increasing energy bills. There have been new non commodity costs introduced over the last year, such as the Nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB) scheme for new nuclear developments, and the Energy Intensive Industry (EII) Support Levy (ESL) which was introduced to improve competitiveness of major industry in the UK. There has also been increases to existing costs, most notably Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charges which has seen published rates for 26/27 come in 60% higher than the previous year's rates.

On the flip side the government has announced a number of measures aimed at bringing energy bills down for customers. As part of the November budget last year, it was announced that 75% of Renewable Obligation (RO) costs would be paid by government, and the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) would be coming to an end from April 2026. It should be noted that these two changes will only impact domestic customers, the support does not extend to businesses. A further change that will benefit business customers is the reindexation of the RO and Feed in Tariff (FiT) schemes, which will see both schemes move to a smaller measure of inflation, reducing costs from April 2026.

Further changes are also on the horizon, with additional support for specific businesses being developed, due to come into effect in 2027.

First, let’s pull apart the TNUoS increase in a bit more detail…

TNUoS charges have been a big focus of the last year, from April 2026 we will be entering a new financial period for the scheme known as RIIO-ET3. This new period marked the chance for the transmission owners (TOs) who run the network and Ofgem to change how funding for the transmission network works. It also gives the TOs the chance to put forward updated budgets for the running, maintenance, and improvements of the networks. The biggest change has been the increase in allowed revenues that the TOs can receive, the allowed revenues are collected via the TNUoS charges. In order to meet net zero targets, there needs to be significant investment made to improve the transmission network and ensure it is capable of handling the increasing proportion of renewable generation. The result of this is that bill payers will expect to see their TNUoS costs increase significantly from April 2026.

Following Ofgem’s final determination published in December 2025, which sets out the framework for RIIO-ET3, we have seen the first set of published TNUoS rates for the new financial period. The standing charge for 26/27 is expected to be around 60% higher than 25/26 rates. While it is a significant increase, it had been believed that the rates would be nearer double what they are now, however Ofgem introduced more phasing to the allowed revenues, meaning that while the first year is lower than expected, TNUoS rates are expected to keep rising, though not as considerably as the jump we’ve seen for 26/27.

RIIO-ET3 lasts for 5 years, and although the framework has been set, there is still some level of uncertainty around rates from 27/28 onwards. Budgets and site numbers can all change within the Ofgem framework and impact the published rates. Whilst we’ve likely had the biggest step change already, TNUoS is a cost to still follow closely over the coming years.

Gas is similarly impacted by the new financial control period and is similarly named RIIO-GT3. Gas transportation rates are also increasing in 26/27, changes to debt funding, higher business rates and lower demand have all contributed to the upcoming increases. It should be noted that the gas system faces very different challenges to the electricity system and typically sees far fewer changes to costs as we’ve seen in recent years on the electricity side.

Now onto the EII Support Levy…

I covered the ESL in the previous blog, at the time it was relatively new, and we were getting to grips with how the scheme would work. The scheme set out to make major industries in the UK more competitive by further reducing their energy bills. On top of the exemptions from FiT, RO, CM and CfD, EIIs could also claim back up to 60% of their network charges. Fast forward a year, and further changes are being made to the scheme. From April 2026 EIIs will be able to claim back up to 90% of their network charges, effectively increasing the ESL costs by 50%. And unfortunately, there are expected to be further increases from April, network charges include TNUoS, so EIIs will be paying, and able to claim back more.

The increase to ESL isn’t the only change that government has been making to improve the UK’s competitive on the European and world stage. A new scheme is currently being developed, being called the British Industrial Competitiveness scheme (BICs) aimed at expanding the exemptions to the FiT, RO and CM schemes to around 7,000 new businesses. For this the government is targeting advanced manufacturing, though the exact businesses are yet to be identified. Whilst this is good news for the eligible businesses, it is expected that those who remain will have to foot the bill. The additional exemptions will reduce the volumes that the FiT, RO and CM costs are spread over, which will result in higher rates.

There is some good news too…

Aside from the targeted support being provided to certain businesses, and reductions in costs for domestic customers announcement in Novembers budget, it has felt as though non commodity costs are set to increase. That is until the government announced plans for the reindexation of RO and FiT, which was confirmed to be happening at the end of January, taking effect from April 2026. So, what does reindexation mean? Both the RO and FiT schemes see their costs grow in line with inflation each year. Up until now, the Retail Price Index (RPI) was used as the measure. The rates for both schemes from April 2026 will be determined by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead. CPI is generally lower than RPI, meaning the RO and FiT scheme rates will grow more slowly each year than if they had remained on RPI.

The government has seemed keen to get this change implemented and start realising the benefit on customer bills. The benefit will start of relatively small in the first year, CPI is typically around 0.5-1.0ppt lower than RPI. As it stands, the benefits from RO and FiT are unlikely to be enough to offset the other increases we’ll be seeing, however the impact will grow each year due to the compounding effect of inflation.

Final thoughts

It’s felt like the non-commodity world has been an active one for a while and is playing an ever-increasing role in customer bills. 26/27 is due to be one of the biggest years in a while for change, but there is likely to be even more to come in this space in the coming months and years.

Now more than ever it’s important to stay informed and aware of upcoming changes and how they could impact your business. The path we’re on to net zero is a challenging one and is requiring significant investment up front. This shouldn’t take away from the longer-term benefits of a more sustainable and stable energy market, as well as the wider benefits the focus on renewable energy should bring. Stay tuned to our updates as we continue to monitor and analyse these developments, ensuring that you are equipped with the knowledge to navigate this dynamic energy landscape.

Non-commodity charges for 2026

Changes & Updates

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