UK Energy Market in 2026: What Senior Managers Need to Know

Looking Ahead: Why 2026 Will Be a Defining Year

As we move into 2026, the UK Energy Market is shifting again, creating new pressures and opportunities for commercial energy management across every sector, from retail and hospitality to manufacturing, education, and healthcare. The turbulence of 2022–2024 has eased, but not disappeared, and the past twelve months have shown that volatility is no longer an occasional disruption; it is now a structural feature of the UK Energy Market.

For senior managers responsible for commercial energy management, compliance, and cost control, the question isn’t merely what is happening now,  it’s what happens next, and what proactive steps are needed to stay ahead.

This overview brings together where 2025 has taken the sector and the trends shaping 2026, offering clarity on what matters most for commercial energy management in the year ahead: stability, regulation, efficiency, sustainability, and protecting profits.

 

2025 in Review: Stabilisation Without Relief

After the price shocks of previous years, 2025 brought a sense of stabilisation, but not a return to “normal.” Wholesale prices settled at a higher baseline than businesses were used to pre-2020. Many organisations locked into multi-year contracts in 2023 and 2024 are now navigating renewals that remain costlier than expected.

·       Structural price pressure remained

Even with relative stability, prices did not fall to pre-crisis levels. Demand across Europe, ongoing global uncertainty, and infrastructure constraints kept commercial energy costs elevated.

 

·       Efficiency became an operational priority

The rise in energy intensity across sites made inefficiency more visible and more expensive. Businesses that previously relied on behavioural changes alone found that permanent operational fixes were needed to hit budgets.

 

·       Compliance expectations increased

With regulatory regimes such as the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) requiring large enterprises within the UK Energy Market to audit and report their energy use and efficiency measures, and growing investor and stakeholder scrutiny of carbon and cost performance, 2025 was when energy reporting became less about annual documents and more about continuous performance visibility.

 

 

What’s Coming in 2026: Six Trends UK Energy Market should prepare for

2026 will bring both challenge and opportunity. Here are the forces most likely to shape the year ahead.

1.         Higher baseline costs and tighter budgets

Wholesale costs are expected to remain above pre-2020 averages, driven by demand, supply constraints, and the long-term cost of energy transition. Large businesses will tighten operational budgets, meaning energy managers must show measurable returns on efficiency work.

What this means for you:
You’ll need more accurate data on waste, quicker identification of faults, and clear visibility of which actions deliver the biggest impact. The pressure to justify savings, not just suggest them, will intensify.

2.         Rising expectations for transparent commercial energy management

Stakeholders now want more than consumption totals. They expect granularity: where energy is used, what’s driving waste, and how interventions compare across the estate.

What this means for you:
Manual reporting won’t keep pace. Systems that consolidate and unify data are becoming essential to meet reporting expectations without increasing staff workload.

3.         Regulation and sustainability pressures tightening

Although 2026 may not include a new regulatory overhaul, the direction of travel is clear. With frameworks like ESOS already in place, scrutiny from lenders, customers and investors will increase. Organisations that can demonstrate well-managed energy performance will have a competitive advantage.

What this means for you:
Clear, consistent insight will be essential. Energy managers who can quantify avoided consumption, project ROI, and support investment cases will be better placed to secure budgets.

4.         Growing complexity across commercial estates

Many businesses now operate more dispersed portfolios than ever before – part office, part remote, part hybrid, part specialist sites. This creates uneven consumption patterns and a greater risk of unnoticed waste.

What this means for you:
You’ll likely face more anomalies, more variance between sites, and a greater need for automated detection of unexpected activity. Energy strategies in 2026 must be designed around mixed estates, not just traditional portfolios.

5.         Data-driven decision-making becomes non-negotiable

The major shift in the UK Energy Market for 2026 will be a move from reactive to predictive energy management. Instead of waiting for monthly bills or quarterly reports, organisations will rely on continuous insight to prioritise fixes and prevent wasted spend. Recent public analysis shows wholesale energy prices remain subject to global factors and supply constraints, meaning unpredictability remains a feature of the market.

What this means for you:
Data will play a bigger role in everyday operations. The businesses that succeed will be those that treat energy like any other strategic resource: measured, monitored, and managed with precision.

6.         The arrival of MHHS — more granular data, smarter energy decisions

A key structural change coming into play in 2026 is the rollout of the UK-wide Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS). As of September 2025, the central systems required to support MHHS are live, and from October 2025 the migration of meters, including those at commercial sites, will begin.

Once fully implemented (targeted for mid-2027), MHHS will mean that electricity consumption is settled based on actual half-hourly data rather than estimates or standard profiles.

What this means for you:

• Access to much more granular data on building/site-level electricity use -enabling more precise monitoring of consumption patterns, wastage, and the impact of energy-saving measures.
• Opportunity to align procurement, demand-response and operational scheduling with real usage and potential off-peak pricing or flexible-tariff opportunities.
• Ability to underpin future energy-efficiency or decarbonisation initiatives with robust data – helping satisfy growing compliance, ESG and investor reporting demands.

For organisations serious about commercial energy management, MHHS represents a foundational shift – and one that should be integrated into planning for 2026 and beyond.

How senior managers in the UK Energy Market can stay ahead in 2026

Taken together, these trends point to a clear conclusion: 2026 will reward organisations that build resilient, insight-led commercial energy management strategies.

The landscape remains complex – but it’s more predictable than it was two years ago. The opportunity now lies in moving from firefighting to forward planning.

Senior managers who focus on the following priorities will be best positioned:

• Eliminate avoidable waste. Every uncontrolled hour of consumption has a direct cost. Quick wins and operational fixes matter.
• Strengthen reporting for compliance and investment
• Accurate, reliable energy data is increasingly essential to meet regulatory expectations and shape sustainability strategies.
• Use data to prioritise action
• Focus teams on the interventions that deliver the greatest impact – not the ones that sound most appealing.
• Support sustainability with measurable performance
• Evidence of performance, not narrative, will matter most to boards, investors, and customers.

 

Final Thought

2026 won’t be the easiest year for the UK Energy Market, but it may be one of the most strategically important. The organisations that embed data-led decision-making and proactive efficiency measures will not only manage costs more effectively, but also position themselves ahead of regulatory, operational, and sustainability expectations.