The short version

Ask most people what drives a business electricity price and they’ll say the supplier. It’s a reasonable answer and it’s only half right. A good chunk of what you pay never reaches your supplier at all. It covers the cables, substations and pylons between the power station and your meter, and that cost changes depending on where in Britain you happen to trade.

Quick answer. Great Britain has 14 electricity distribution regions, each run by a different network operator that recovers its costs through charges built into your unit rate. Two businesses with identical consumption can pay different prices purely because of region. The first two digits of your MPAN identify which region prices your site.

Choose your region or city

Region or city	What the page covers
Scotland	Two distribution regions, the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme, and support that exists nowhere else in Britain.
England	Ten regions, six operators, and a north to south gradient on every bill.
Wales	Split across two regions, neither of them Welsh-specific. MPAN 21 and 13.
London	UK Power Networks, MPAN 12, and the highest transmission charges in Britain.
Manchester	Electricity North West, MPAN 16, the only operator running a single region.
Birmingham	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 14, and an industrial demand profile.
Leeds	Northern Powergrid, MPAN 23, and a favourable spot on the transmission map.
Liverpool	SP Manweb, MPAN 13, a region that crosses into north Wales.
Cardiff	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 21, one half of a split country.
Glasgow	SP Distribution, MPAN 18, the busier half of Scotland’s two-network split.
Edinburgh	SP Distribution, MPAN 18, low transmission charges and why the Highland support schemes stop short of the capital.
Bristol	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 22, and why a Bristol quote carries a South West network cost.
Sheffield	Northern Powergrid, MPAN 23, capacity and half-hourly pricing for a city that still forges steel.
Newcastle	Northern Powergrid, MPAN 15, and why the North East sits closer to Scottish generation than to southern prices.
Nottingham	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 11, and a city of converted warehouses carrying inherited supply capacity.
Leicester	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 11, and why so many manufacturers sit right on the half-hourly line.
Coventry	National Grid Electricity Distribution, MPAN 14, the same network as Birmingham, and steady industrial load.
Bradford	Northern Powergrid, MPAN 23, mills wired for steam and more businesses than Sheffield.
Milton Keynes	UK Power Networks Eastern, MPAN 10, a city built with electricity in mind and big sheds on the wrong contracts.
Cambridge	UK Power Networks Eastern, MPAN 10, and the grid capacity queue every lab has to join.
Oxfordshire	SSEN Southern, MPAN 20, our home county, and the most constrained network in England.
Southampton	SSEN Southern, MPAN 20, a working port with round-the-clock load at the top of the transmission map.
Brighton	UK Power Networks South Eastern, MPAN 19, Regency buildings and a summer profile priced as a flat year.
Aberdeen	SSEN north of Scotland, MPAN 17, the cheapest transmission zone and the most expensive network to run.

Why does region change what a business pays for electricity?

Great Britain is divided into 14 electricity distribution regions, each run by a distribution network operator. That operator maintains the cables, substations and poles between the transmission network and your meter, and recovers the cost through distribution charges built into your unit rate.

Those charges aren’t the same everywhere. A dense urban region spreads its network costs across a lot of customers. A sparse rural one doesn’t. Add zonal transmission charges on top, which reflect how far you sit from where the power is generated, and two businesses with identical consumption can land on genuinely different prices.

How do I find my distribution region?

Look at the supply number block on your electricity bill. The first two digits of your MPAN are the distributor ID, and they map straight to a region. No phone call needed.

MPAN starts	Region	Distribution operator
10	Eastern England	UK Power Networks
11	East Midlands	National Grid Electricity Distribution
12	London	UK Power Networks
13	Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales	SP Energy Networks (SP Manweb)
14	West Midlands	National Grid Electricity Distribution
15	North East England	Northern Powergrid
16	North West England	Electricity North West
17	North Scotland	SSEN (Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution)
18	Central and Southern Scotland	SP Energy Networks (SP Distribution)
19	South East England	UK Power Networks
20	Southern England	SSEN (Southern Electric Power Distribution)
21	South Wales	National Grid Electricity Distribution
22	South West England	National Grid Electricity Distribution
23	Yorkshire	Northern Powergrid

Operator names reflect the current market. Western Power Distribution was rebranded National Grid Electricity Distribution after its acquisition, so older bills may still carry the former name.

Does my region limit which suppliers I can use?

No. Every licensed supplier in Great Britain can supply any GB meter, so your region doesn’t restrict your choice. What it changes is the network element of the price each supplier quotes, which is why the same supplier can return two different numbers for two of your sites on the same morning.

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