UK business energy use is rising again.

UK business energy use statistics: key findings from DESNZ ECUK 2025.

Commercial energy consumption in the UK: services electricity and lighting use.

ECUK says services energy intensity increased from 183 to 188 ktoe per unit of output between 2023 and 2024. That is still close to the lowest levels in the series, but the direction matters: lower prices, slightly cooler weather and building use can pull demand back up even when equipment has become more efficient.

In electricity terms, the services end-use table is a useful proxy for commercial buildings because it includes the everyday loads found in offices, retail, education, hospitality and other service-sector premises. Lighting is the second-largest named electricity end use in the 2024 table, behind the broad other category. That is why the figure belongs beside practical pages on office lighting, retail lighting and warehouse and industrial lighting, not just in an energy statistics table.

For lighting projects, this is the practical reading: commercial buildings need efficient luminaires, sensible controls and product choices that do not create avoidable replacement work later.

Lighting is not the whole energy story. It is one of the clearer electrical loads to act on.

The source data points to a measured position. Space heating, transport fuel and industrial heat dominate UK energy use. But in commercial and industrial buildings, lighting remains a sizeable electrical end use, and it is easier to specify, meter, control and replace than many embedded building loads.

That matters for office refurbishments, school upgrades, retail rollouts, warehouse lighting and wider commercial lighting replacement work. The strongest projects combine efficient luminaires with zoning, occupancy control, daylight response where appropriate and product choices that keep future replacement waste under control.