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Business supply and services
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Business supply and services
The energy crisis affects businesses as well as households
Yesterday morning we issued our updated forecasts for the Default Tariff Cap through to the end of 2023. They make for grim reading: from 1 October 2022 the Cap will average £3,500/year equivalent or so for at least a year, unless there is a collapse in the wholesale energy markets....
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Announcement
The Energy Security Bill explained – from the Queen’s Speech
On Wednesday 11 May, the Queen's Speech was delivered which announced that an Energy Security Bill will be introduced at some point over the next parliamentary session. What is the Energy Security Bill and what does the Government state the benefits will be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfmkM0mAqc What are the main elements of...
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Business supply and services
Ofgem reaches conclusion for the Microbusiness Strategic Review
The Microbusiness Strategic Review came to a close on 28 March 2022, with four finalised proposals from Ofgem that aim to protect microbusiness consumers and create a more robust framework through which the market can operate. Following the unprecedented rise in wholesale prices and recent geopolitical events, these changes are...
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Business supply and services
Re-balancing the balancing costs –BSUoS charges to be levied solely on suppliers from April 2023
Balancing the electricity system costs money. National Grid in its role as Electricity System Operator (ESO) takes actions in every half hour to achieve the remarkable feat of keeping supply and demand finely balanced on our national electricity system – maintaining a system which runs between 49.8 and 50.2Hz with...
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Business supply and services
Businesses facing a 250% increase in gas bills
The past two years have been incredibly tough for SMEs, with many still struggling to keep their heads above water. To add to what is already a difficult time, Cornwall Insight’s ‘Pricing in the SME gas markets’ quarterly report has shown, that on a year-on-year basis, SME customers are facing...
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Business supply and services
Wake-up call: Cost pressure in the GB energy market
This Energy Perspective was published in Issue 791 of Energy Spectrum on 10 January 2022. The current crises afflicting the energy supply sector, driven by rising energy input costs, are of economy-wide concern. The price of energy has always been an issue of significance for national economic competitiveness, inflation, monetary...
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Business supply and services
With great power comes great responsibility – what can be done for customers and suppliers in these challenging times?
Given that the situation in the wholesale markets shows no signs of abating, both the government and Ofgem have a shared responsibility for helping to steward the energy sector through a period of profound challenges for suppliers as well as for their customers. Furthermore, the risk of structural damage to...
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Business supply and services
Wholesale energy prices see new record highs as 2021 comes to a close
In what continues to be a particularly tumultuous period for the wholesale energy market in the lead up to Christmas, prices have continued their crusade of setting record highs in a final send-off to 2021. On Wednesday 22 December, day-ahead gas prices reached a new all-time record high (on our...
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Business supply and services
Webinar | Energy supplier exits: managing the fall-out
In our webinar last week, Adam Boorman, Craig Lowrey, Robert Buckley and Jacob Briggs discussed a range of topics in light of recent market developments. They were joined by over 70 attendees join and discussed: the changing wholesale market engagement for smaller suppliersthe challenges of managing exiting companies,the commercial impacts...
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Business supply and services
Have we given up on competition in the retail market?
“Q: How does 2pm on Wednesday sound? A: Assuming we still have a functioning energy market that'd be great”. It’s not really what you expect to see in an email at 5pm on a Friday when trying to arrange a call. But then these are certainly not normal times. In this Energy Perspective, we will...
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Business supply and services
Power prices for SME’s reach record highs
According to our latest Pricing in the SME power market report, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) power prices have continued to rise in Q221, reaching the highest level since our records began in Q212. On average, prices have increased by 24.8% year-on-year at the PC3-6MWh and PC3-15MWh consumption points and...
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Business supply and services
Energy suppliers must be ready to demonstrate compliance with new principles
From 22 January, energy suppliers were required to follow new principles resulting from Ofgem’s Supplier Licensing Review (SLR), which initially kicked off nearly three years ago. Such was the breadth of the SLR, changes were introduced in two rounds, with the first round of changes bringing the introduction of tougher...
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Business supply and services
A look back at 2020 part 3
As we take our first steps into 2021, we continue to look back at the biggest developments in the UK energy markets in 2020, setting us up for the significant year ahead. The mergers and exits from the supply market that were seen in 2019 continued into 2020 and led...
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Business supply and services
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: the RO late payment deadline
Today (11 November 2020) Ofgem has confirmed that there will be mutualisation of the 2019-20 Renewables Obligation. On Monday, in our 'Energy Spectrum' Perspective, we explained to customer’s why this was important and likely and what it means for the energy industry. Find out more about a free trial to Energy...
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Business supply and services
Responses to COVID-19 boost energy suppliers’ reputations with customers
2020 is, unfortunately, proving to be a year that we will never forget. It has been a year of change and adaptability for us all, including domestic energy suppliers, with many suppliers having had to adapt to increasing numbers of customers in distress while operating at reduced capacity and/or with...
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Business supply and services
Why now? Regulation in the TPI market
Ofgem published its long-awaited policy proposals on 29 July following a review of the microbusiness sector. These build on its initial consultation from May 2019 and look to ensure that microbusinesses can access a competitive market and secure adequate levels of protection. The approach will be a defining moment for...
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Business supply and services
All mod cons: Routes to market for household flexibility
According to National Grid’s 2019 Future Energy Scenarios[1], meeting decarbonisation targets could require deployment in GB of 13GW of flexibility from commercial and industrial consumers by 2050, compared to around 1GW currently available. While there are currently no comparable forecasts for domestic demand-side response (DSR), energy suppliers and technology companies...
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Business supply and services
Three key themes taking place in the TPI sector
While discussion continues around the impacts of COVID-19 on energy suppliers, the effects have reached into all parts of the energy value chain. Here, we take a look at the impacts on the TPI sector, alongside other key developments in the TPI market, highlighted in our second quarterly update of...
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Business supply and services
Green gas in the pipeline
Interest in supplying green gas is increasing in the business market. In July, our Non-Domestic Supplier Insight Service found that SSE has joined the growing number of business suppliers, including Ecotricity, ENGIE, Octopus Energy and Ørsted in adding green gas to the mix of products they offer. Suppliers tend to...
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Business supply and services
Three key trends to look out for in the TPI sector
Our latest quarterly update of our TPI report continues to highlight the many themes taking place in the market. This report focuses on the developments around regulation in the TPI and business market as a whole and the CMA’s price transparency remedy. It also looks at the changing way the...
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Business supply and services
Flying too close to the sun – SoLR processes in water and energy blog
Yesterday, Aquaflow Utilities entered administration and as a result exited the non-domestic water retail market in England & Wales. This is the first time an English water retailer has suffered an uncontrolled exit from the water market, but over the last 18 months 11 energy suppliers have exited the electricity...
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Business supply and services
Much for Ofgem to consider in its microbusiness market review
Ofgem seems to be gearing up for its much-anticipated review of the microbusiness energy market, having highlighted its intention in its draft 2019-21 Forward Work Programme, published in November 2018. Not before time say some, citing customer confusion and disengagement, over-mighty suppliers and too many dodgy brokers. The business market has...
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Business supply and services
New survey shows TPIs at risk of being left behind on technology
The results from our new survey covering opinions of business energy suppliers on third party intermediaries (TPIs) are published today. It is clear that the suppliers strongly recognise the important role of TPIs in the business supply markets, but equally clear that there is much more to be done in...
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Business supply and services
Pricing strategies in the SME market
Following the transparency measure introduced by the CMA in June 2017, suppliers servicing microbusinesses are required to make their rates easily available to customers. Whilst the majority of suppliers evaluated in our SME pricing reports have introduced online quotation tools to fulfil this requirement, the pricing strategies they reveal vary...
