Business gas for manufacturing and industrial

Manufacturing sites are gas-hungry. Process heat, drying, kilns, steam boilers, and space heating all add up to volume that dwarfs a typical office or shop. Pricing at this end of the market works differently. Wholesale-linked tariffs, half-hourly metering, capacity charges, and Climate Change Agreement (CCA) relief all come into play. We compare suppliers across the open UK market with industrial load shapes and the AMR data behind them, not a brochure rate.

The mechanics of switching gas are the same as for any commercial site. We cover them in our guide to switching business gas. But industrial-specific levers matter more here: Climate Change Levy and CCL relief eligibility, half-hourly meter (DM) versus non-daily metered (NDM) pricing, and whether a flex contract beats a fixed for sites that are exposed to wholesale.

Our wider business gas service covers the whole UK market. For manufacturers we also look at Climate Change Agreements through your trade body, peak / off-peak shaping if your process can shift load, and biomethane procurement for sites with hard ESG commitments.

Climate Change Levy and CCA relief

CCL adds around 0.775p per kWh on gas. Sites in eligible sectors (ceramics, foundries, food processing, chemicals, paper, brewing, dairy, and others) can claim around 90% relief through a Climate Change Agreement. The agreement runs through the relevant trade body and requires hitting energy-efficiency targets. We’ll flag whether you’re likely to qualify, point you at the right scheme, and make sure the new gas contract is set up to apply the relief correctly from day one.

Half-hourly metering and DM gas contracts

Once your annual consumption goes over 73,200 kWh, you may need (or benefit from) a daily metered (DM) gas connection. Pricing on DM contracts is structured differently. There’s a capacity element, a transportation element, and a commodity element, and suppliers vary widely on how each is bundled. We pull apart the line items, so the comparison is genuinely like-for-like rather than just headline unit rate.

Fixed versus flex contracts

For sites with predictable load and risk tolerance, a flexible (basket / pass-through) contract can beat a fixed by tracking wholesale down. But it also rides wholesale up. Fixed contracts give certainty, simpler budgeting, and protection against winter spikes. We’ll lay out both routes with the actual numbers behind them so you can choose with eyes open.

How an industrial gas switch works with us