Why This Is Good News for Solar Owners in the South East
From 1st April 2026, energy Standing Charges in England, Scotland and Wales will fall by around £39 per year for a typical dual fuel household.
The change follows confirmation that the cost of the Warm Home Discount scheme will no longer be funded through Standing Charges. Instead, these costs will move into the unit rate (the price per kWh of energy used).
For most households, this will simply rebalance how costs are structured, but for solar panel owners, particularly during spring and summer, this is more significant. For many SolarTherm UK customers, summer bills are often almost entirely Standing Charge. A reduction directly improves the value of owning solar.
What’s Actually Changing?
Until now, part of the cost of funding the Warm Home Discount scheme – in place to support low income households with energy costs in winter months – has been included in the daily standing charge, the fixed fee you pay simply to be connected to the grid.
From April, standing charges will reduce by roughly £39 per year and the cost will move to the unit rate. The Government has indicated overall bills should remain broadly neutral and only those households with high energy use will be affected.
Standing charges currently make up roughly £300-£330 per year of an average bill, regardless of how much energy you use. This structure penalises low usage households, those actively reducing their energy consumption and most importantly homes that generate their own electricity. This change begins to address that imbalance.
Why This Is Particularly Good News for Solar PV Owners
For homeowners who’s solar PV system is correctly sized, the summer energy profile is very different to a non-solar household. From April to September, many SolarTherm UK customers generate most (or all) of their daytime electricity, exporting surplus back to the grid for payment under the Smart Export Guarantee. Solar owners, especially those with battery storage, draw minimal electricity from their supplier in summer months, only paying the daily standing charge and small amounts of overnight usage.
So, when the standing charge falls, even modestly, the benefit lands directly in your pocket.
The Structural Shift: Why It Matters
Moving policy costs from standing charges to unit rates has an important behavioural effect:
- Lower standing charges reward lower consumption
- Higher unit rate weighting means heavy users pay more
- Energy efficiency and on site generation become more financially attractive
From a system design perspective, this is logical. If you invest in solar panels, battery storage and energy efficiency upgrades, you should see a tangible reduction in your bills.
Historically, high standing charges diluted that incentive because a large portion of your bill was unavoidable. This adjustment begins to realign incentives toward lower grid dependency – which is precisely what distributed solar achieves.
What About Ofgem’s Low Standing Charge Tariffs?
Industry regulator Ofgem has proposed requiring suppliers to offer at least one low standing charge tariff. However, this has yet to fully materialise. If properly structured, low standing charge tariffs would be particularly attractive to solar households with high self-consumption levels and smart load management.
What This Means for SolarTherm UK Customers
For homeowners and businesses across the South East, this policy change reinforces something we’ve been saying for years:
The less energy you import from the grid, the stronger your financial position becomes.
When standing charges fall:
- Solar only homes benefit
- Solar and battery homes benefit more
- Commercial sites performing peak shaving benefit even further
In summer especially, many of our customers effectively eliminate grid usage. Lowering the fixed cost of connection means those low import months become even more efficient financially.
It’s not transformational – but it is a step in the right direction.
A Subtle but Strategic Shift
This isn’t a dramatic reform. It won’t halve bills overnight. But, structurally, it nudges the market toward rewarding lower energy consumption, energy efficiency, self-generation and energy independence. For solar owners, that alignment matters.
If future reforms continue shifting costs away from fixed charges and toward usage based pricing, the economics of solar will continue to strengthen.
Thinking About Solar in 2026?
If you’re in the South East and considering reducing your exposure to rising energy costs, solar PV combined with battery storage remains one of the most effective long term solutions. Combining solar PV with battery storage, smart technology and time of use tariffs can result in energy bill decreases of up to 80%.
SolarTherm UK is here to help with bespoke solar PV systems and battery storage solutions installed by dedicated MCS accredited installers and a team of expert solar specialists to support you for the lifetime of your solar PV system.
Contact SolarTherm UK today for a free, no obligation quote and design, tailored to your property, usage and future energy needs. No hard sell, just honest, expert advice – and the time to make an informed decision.
Your home. Your energy. Your future.
