A ground-breaking new study produced in the North East is set to revolutionise the commercial energy market by giving UK businesses vital insights into the performance of key suppliers – and a better opportunity to save thousands of pounds on their energy bills.
Commissioned by Newcastle-based business energy services provider Troo, the Business Energy Supplier Index is the first publication to rank business energy suppliers in the UK. It aims to benchmark business energy supplier performance against others in the market, challenging the most established companies and some significant new market entrants on their scale, financial stability, green energy and customer service credentials.
For the first time, businesses can judge which energy suppliers are the most financially stable, which suppliers have the most customers, and which suppliers score highest on customer service, all in one place. They can also use the data to reduce the cost of their energy bills, with current estimates indicating that firms are overpaying for their energy by between £500 million and £1.7 billion each year – often because they fail to shop around.
As well as helping businesses, the index will allow suppliers to benchmark their performance against their peers, and regulators to determine whether new policy is required to curb unfair price rises or generate more competition in the market.
The inaugural 2020 index shows that British Gas achieved the highest overall score of 3.7 (out of five), with solid scores across all metrics. SSE Group and Engie are in joint second in the table having scored an overall ranking of 3.1, with the latter scoring highly on financial stability and customer service.
The highest-placed small supplier on the list is Hudson Energy, which offers 100% renewable energy and scored top marks in the sustainability metric.
At the bottom of the table, long-established business energy specialist Corona Energy recorded a poor customer service rating and a lower sustainability score than other small energy suppliers in the index, with renewables making up less than 25% of its portfolio. Meanwhile Ørsted (formerly known as Dong Energy), which exited the oil and gas industry to focus on renewables, scored top marks for sustainability but languishes near the bottom of the table due to average or below average scores in other metrics.
Andrew Richardson, CEO and founder of Troo, said: “Our index is the first comprehensive review of the UK business energy market. It uses robust methodology to help businesses and other interested parties understand how business energy suppliers perform across several key metrics so they can make truly informed choices about their business energy.
“It’s clear that British businesses are spending far too much on energy every year. This is down to several reasons, including suppliers raising prices above competitive levels, the use of unregulated energy brokers and companies’ inertia which has resulted in them not switching to a cheaper supplier.
“The data in our inaugural index and subsequent Troo indices may encourage more businesses to shop around for better deals and foster greater competition in the commercial environment. It may also help to bring this market more in line with the domestic energy sector, where switching suppliers is becoming increasingly common.”
Tim Hipperson, an independent energy analyst at Hipperson Consulting, said: “Troo’s index is a highly useful reference guide for analysts, companies, suppliers and regulators and provides much-needed intelligence on the fast-evolving, highly competitive business energy market.
“Ofgem is about to introduce its Retail Energy Code (REC) to make it easier and quicker for businesses to switch supplier. With new market entrants coming in with disruptive models and technology, strong customer service credentials and compelling green energy offerings, there is more pressure on established players to invest in renewables and technology to compete.
“At a time of such change, it’s vital that we have additional visibility on supplier performance and Troo’s report provides this.”
A new breed of business energy broker, Troo is on a mission to shake up the business energy market. The company helps businesses save money, time and hassle when renewing business energy contracts by sourcing the most competitive prices from suppliers.
Troo, offers services aimed at the SME market to provide highly competitive rates for energy prices – with the company taking a clearly-defined transparent fee from the supplier – alongside offering a free online benchmarking platform to allow price comparisons.
