Business electricity for farms and agriculture

Farms run electricity-hungry kit on patterns that don’t fit a standard 9-5 contract. Grain dryers run for weeks at harvest, milking parlours pull peak loads twice a day, poultry sheds need round-the-clock ventilation, and irrigation pumps come on in dry spells. We compare suppliers across the open UK market with that load shape in mind, not as if you ran an office.

The basic switching mechanics are in our guide to switching business electricity, but agricultural contracts have specific decisions: whether to take a day/night Economy 7 tariff for off-peak loads like grain drying, how to handle multiple meters across a single holding, and how to negotiate when your import meter also exports solar back to the grid.

Our wider business electricity service covers the whole UK market. For farms we also factor in seasonal usage profiles, on-farm generation, and the impact of Capacity Market and DUoS bands on contract pricing.

Solar PV, anaerobic digestion and export contracts

If you’ve got solar on the barn roof or an AD plant feeding the grid, the import contract and the export route need to be priced together. We look at your import volume after self-consumption, the export tariff or PPA, and whether you’d benefit from a green import contract that matches your on-site generation. Getting both sides aligned can be worth 1–2p/kWh on a typical farm.

Economy 7 and time-of-use tariffs

For grain drying, cold storage, and overnight battery charging, an Economy 7 contract with a cheap night rate can knock 30–40% off the kWh cost of those loads. Not every supplier offers it on business meters, and the night rate window varies. We model your actual usage profile against the day/night split before recommending it.

Multi-meter holdings and farm cottages

Most working farms have several meters. Main yard, grain store, poultry shed, dairy, plus farmworker cottages. We consolidate everything onto one comparison so you can see whether grouping all meters onto one supplier beats keeping commercial separate from domestic. The right answer changes depending on the size of the rural domestic supply.

How a farm electricity switch works with us