{"id":757459,"date":"2026-02-11T15:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/757459\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:34:16","slug":"electricity-bills-to-top-ukraine-war-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/757459\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity bills to top Ukraine war heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tWednesday 11 February 2026 3:01 pm\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tShare<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tX\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Twitter\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on LinkedIn\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tWhatsApp\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on WhatsApp\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"social-share__popup-item\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tEmail\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Email\n\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img width=\"742\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2157956960-1-1.jpg\" class=\"media \" alt=\"Centrica is the UK's largest listed energy provider (Photo by Leon Neal\/Getty Images)\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\"  \/>\t\tCentrica is the UK&#8217;s largest listed energy provider (Photo by Leon Neal\/Getty Images)\t<\/p>\n<p>Electricity bills will be higher in 2030 than in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the boss of British Gas has warned, as the government pushes through major upgrades to the UK\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/ofgem-gives-green-light-to-landmark-electric-grid-upgrade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">grid infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Chris O\u2019Shea, chief executive of British Gas-owner Centrica, said the UK was playing catch-up after years of underinvestment, and now faced significantly higher costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve underinvested in the system for many years, and whether it\u2019s the cost of building a new gas-fired power station or a new wind farm, the costs have gone up,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/c6bd1db4-3bd5-4471-99d2-bf57b15a96e8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">he said at an event hosted by the Energy Institute<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur projections show that the UK energy system will be one where, by 2030, the electricity price will be higher than it was at the peak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Shea said two-thirds of the costs would be on \u201csystem costs\u201d while the remaining third would be wholesale costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose system costs aren\u2019t net zero costs,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are addressing years and years of underinvestment and whether we went for net zero or new fossil fuels, we would need to incur those system costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Electricity bills to rise for grid upgrades<\/p>\n<p>His comments highlight the challenges facing the government in bringing down the cost of electricity bills while also upgrading the UK\u2019s outdated grid infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last year Britain\u2019s network companies were given the green light to spend \u00a328bn on upgrading the gas and electricity grids, forming the first part of a wider investment pipeline which could cost around \u00a390bn if approved.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The investment will go towards new pylons and cables to connect with wind farms being constructed around the British coastline. It will primarily be funded through higher network charges on household energy bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ofgem estimates that this will add \u00a3108 a year to bills by 2031, threatening energy secretary Ed Miliband\u2019s pledge to bring down average energy bills by around \u00a3300 before the end of the decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Claire Coutinho, shadow energy secretary said. \u201cIf gas went to zero, bills would still rise because Ed Miliband is building a system that is incredibly expensive. Despite having an undeniably radical policy, he has never forecast the impact of his plans on your bills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/tories-call-milibands-latest-offshore-wind-push-a-vanity-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Tories call Miliband\u2019s latest offshore wind push \u2018a vanity project\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPeople &amp; Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday 11 February 2026 3:01 pm Share Facebook Share on Facebook X Share on Twitter LinkedIn Share on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[1340,51,135582,198340,129721,35,931,2000,299,12,657],"class_list":["post-757459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-british-gas","tag-business","tag-centrica","tag-chris-oshea","tag-electricity-bills","tag-energy","tag-energy-bills","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116052732480012461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}