Reducing costs should be an important, ongoing activity for any business, especially during difficult economic times, but when the cost of a particular resource is forecast to rise highly into the future, then managing the cost of that resource should be an even more critical and urgent activity. Business electricity prices are such a resource.
There are only two ways you can reduce the cost of your business electricity: 1) You can use less of it. 2) You can pay less per unit of electricity that you do use.
We are not qualified to advise you on how to reduce your consumption of electricity, as every company is different, and we do not know your individual circumstance. What we can do here is help you reduce the price per unit of business electricity that you use.
You would think it would be obvious that to pay lower business electricity prices, you need to play the market, get as many quotes as you can and then negotiate hard from a position of knowledge and strength. Sadly too many businesses just stick with the same old supplier year after year without even finding out what other companies are charging, or they'll only ask one or two other companies instead of as many as possible.
So you must at the very least get a quote from the main UK energy companies. They are (in no particular order), Scottish and Southern Energy, British Gas, NPower, Scottish Power, E-On and EDF. There are a number of smaller energy suppliers like Best UK Energy, First Utility and Opus Energy who buy wholesale from the big six energy companies and resell to their own customers. They will all offer different kinds of contracts depending on whether you want a fixed price or fixed term contract, and depending on whether you want them to also supply gas. (they may even have other services which you could negotiate on). You can get a further discount if you opt for electronic billing (to reduce their admin costs) and pay by standing order or direct debit. So firstly, get as many quotes as you can and then you can play them off against each other. You must make them earn your business instead of letting them push you around and take you for granted.
Smart meters are now increasingly common, and these will allow you to measure more precisely how you are using electricity, when and on what, and having these is an absolute must as they are estimated to have reduced the use of electricity by an average of over thirteen percent in the organisations in which they have been in operation. It can sometimes take several months for these to be set up, but they are essential for your own energy efficiency scheme.
It will help your leverage with potential electricity suppliers if you have a good record of payment with your previous ones. If your history isn't as good as it could be, then you need to try and improve your record from now on to earn the brownie points that will help you qualify for bigger discounts in the future. And it is the future you need to concentrate on, as although business electricity prices are high now, they are going to get a lot higher. You need to make the energy companies want your business to get the best deals. Look at it from their point of view.
A variety of business tariffs are available from electricity suppliers, so you need to find out about these from the business account managers from the various energy companies. Work closely with them and get them to understand your business needs, now and into the future to ensure that you always have the right tariff. What is the name of your current business account manager ? When did you last see them ? How much do think they really care about helping you get the best tariff ? Is that enough for you ?
It is highly unlikely that investigating business electricity costs and suppliers is your favourite business activity, but it is highly likely that it will become an increasingly important one as energy prices continue to spiral due to political and environmental reasons. The sooner you take action to check out the alternatives on a regular basis, the better your business will be positioned for whatever the future throws at it.
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