Ofgem confirmed on 26 August 2026 that the energy price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 sets the average electricity unit rate for a Direct Debit customer at 26.32p per kWh, against 26.11p in the July–September period. The daily electricity standing charge moves the other way, from 57.19p to 54.83p. Ofgem also notes that VAT is removed from electricity bills from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, so the published rate is what a household on a standard variable tariff actually pays.
The change is small, and it cuts both ways. Every kilowatt-hour a plug-in system supplies to your home is worth 0.21p more than it was, but the standing charge you cannot avoid has fallen. Nothing about the way plug-in solar works has changed with the cap.
What it means for plug-in solar savings
A plug-in solar device saves money in one way only: electricity it generates while you are using power is electricity you do not buy at the unit rate. The standing charge is untouched, because you pay it every day regardless of what you generate, and a plug-in system without an export arrangement earns nothing for electricity it sends to the grid. So the figure that matters is not the headline cap but your self-consumption — how much of the system's daytime output your home actually absorbs.
That is why we do not publish a single saving figure. The same 800W kit can be worth very different amounts to a household that works from home with a fridge, router and laptops running all day and to one that is empty until the evening. The calculator estimates generation for your postcode, orientation and tilt, then applies a self-consumption assumption based on your daytime use; the payback guide explains how to read the result, and the bill guide shows where solar does and does not appear on a statement.
January and the forecasts
Several forecasters expect a much larger increase when the cap is next reset on 1 January 2027, with reports of rises of around a quarter driven by wholesale costs. Treat those numbers as forecasts. Ofgem publishes the January cap in late November, and it is the only figure that counts. If it does rise sharply, the arithmetic above still holds: a higher unit rate raises the value of every self-consumed kilowatt-hour and leaves the standing charge out of the picture.
What we have changed
The calculator defaults to the cap in force. From 1 October it starts at 26.32p per kWh with the new period shown beneath the field; if you are on a fixed or time-of-use tariff, enter your own rate — the estimate scales with it. Our is it worth it? page walks through the other assumptions that matter more than a 0.21p change in the cap.