Electricity cost savings
Cheaper electricity for your business whilst saving your staff time
Business Cost Consultants are able to manage and reduce your electricity bills, deal with any supplier issues, and help you purchase your electricity contracts. On average, we save our clients between 5 and 15% on their electricity costs.
To obtain the best prices you need to know the details of your electricity profile for at least 12 months, know how to present the data, know which suppliers are likely to be more competitive and know when is the best time of the year to go to the market.
For example, in each of the years 2004 through 2007 the differences between the lowest and the highest points in the UK electricity market prices were over 100%. If you had simply waited till a few months before your electricity contract was due for renewal (as most people do) and gone to seek prices, you would have paid up to 100% more than if you had used our market intelligence and our expertise to judge when was a good time to enter the market.
Keep up to date on relevant electricity news in our news section.
The energy markets in the UK have become like stock markets. How are energy prices likely to move? Should you enter into a flexible contract which fluctuates daily, weekly or monthly? Should you enter into a 12 month, 18 month, two, three or 5 year fixed priced supply agreement? Business Cost Consultants think that you will do best by seeking guidance from our experts, before purchasing your energy contracts. Gas and electricity prices in the UK have been quite closely aligned and are likely to continue that way for the foreseeable future.
There are basically two types of electricity supplies for most organisations in the UK. Electricity contracts depend on the size of the supply:
Half-hourly sites
This refers to larger sites (generally those that peak above a maximum demand of 100kW) and which have Code 5 meters that are read automatically via a modem link. Consumption is normally recorded in half hour periods.
Following denationalisation of the electricity supply industry in the 1990s, the establishment of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) and a surplus of electricity capacity electricity prices fell dramatically and stabilised for several years. However, prices have risen significantly since 2003. Since 2004, there has been very marked volatility in UK electricity (and gas) prices. That volatility is likely to continue for the foreseeable future due to a variety of factors beyond our control. Hence it is vital that all organisations with half-hourly sites obtain the best independent advice when their supply contracts are put out to tender, to ensure that they receive the best possible prices.
To obtain the best prices you need to know the details of your electricity profile for at least 12 months, know how to present the data, know which suppliers are likely to be more competitive and know when is the best time of the year to go to the market.
Non half-hourly sites
This refers to smaller sites with meters that are not normally connected by modem to the supplier. Hence the meter has to be read manually. The maximum demand at those sites is normally less than 100 kW.
Tendering is possible for several smaller sites. In most cases suppliers will quote a price according to a fixed price matrix, based on site profile numbers. Business Cost Consultants have the expertise and experience to know which suppliers are more likely to be interested in your electricity site profiles.
Again, the difficult part is in knowing how best to present your electricity profile and load factor to suppliers, knowing which supplier is likely to be interested in your site or sites and knowing when to go to the electricity market.
If you have large numbers of sites we can also arrange for online tendering. Business Cost Consultants carefully cleanse your data and present it to a number of interested suppliers. They are then invited to submit tenders, which can be reviewed up until the closing date and time.
Local Authority Considerations: Local Authorities, government departments and hospital authorities face a number of challenges. The most challenging in many respects is making sure that the procurement process is compliant with Standing Orders and that they’re not anti-competitive (i.e. including all suppliers available to quote). Local Authorities now have to work in a commodity market that doesn’t necessarily fit with their terms and conditions, so the buyer has to best fit the council’s Terms and Conditions with the Suppliers Terms and Conditions. We ensure that the tendering process is compliant with the OJEC (Official Journal of the European Communities) Regulations.
Resources: In many organisations, the people that deal with the procurement of energy are not normally full-time energy managers. Business Cost Consultants often work with finance directors, mechanical engineers, facilities or maintenance managers who have been tasked with managing the purchase of energy. He or she will have many other priorities which demand attention. Since it is not those people’s full time job, they are not in a position to watch movements and changes in commodity markets or to study market intelligence on a daily basis.
Business Cost Consultants can also help ensure your sites are paying VAT and the Climate Change Levy at the correct rates.
To find out how we saved Trigon Snacks £6,000 per annum and £25,000 in our first year working for them, see the Trigon case study.
What we do
Supply contracts
Business Cost Consultants will obtain the most beneficial electricity contracts for your organisation by evaluating your individual site profiles and negotiating contracts that are optimum for you, whether you have one site or thousands of sites. Some suppliers appear to offer low prices until you find out at the end of the year that you will be heavily penalised because of some clauses in fine print. We carefully vet all contracts for our clients.
Tariff analysis
Are all of your sites on the correct tariffs? Many sites are not. Business Cost Consultants can create significant savings for you by accurately matching how you operate to the most appropriate tariff.
Tracking energy consumption
Business Cost Consultants use smart meters, smart data loggers and specially developed software to keep track of your electricity consumption. That allows us to easily spot anomalies such as higher or lower than expected consumption. We can then help you investigate the reasons for those anomalies.
Auditing electricity bills
Electricity bills can be complex. For most of our clients we check their electricity bills before sending them on for payment. This ensures that you only pay for the electricity you actually use.
Business Cost Consultants will also analyse historic consumption and financial data to ensure that you have not been overcharged in the past. This has led to substantial rebates for some of our clients.
Are you being charged at the rates agreed with your supplier?
Is your load factor appropriate?
Is your site operating at its most efficient?
Have you carefully checked both your fixed and variable charges?
Do you have the time to check incoming electricity bills?
We will ensure that you only pay the charges you agreed with your supplier.
Disputes with suppliers
Many clients wasted weeks, months or years in disputes with suppliers before using our services. Some gave up almost immediately and paid charges which they felt were unreasonable, before using our services. Business Cost Consultants deal with all types of disputes with suppliers. That saves our clients much time, hassle and money.
Upgrading or installing new electricity supplies
Business Cost Consultants can sometimes save clients thousands of pounds on the costs of installing new electricity supplies. Sometimes it pays to combine several supplies on the one meter. Sometimes it pays to install sub-meters.
Energy conservation
If you are concerned about the amount of energy consumed Business Cost Consultants can normally arrange for a free energy audit and report which will help you reduce electricity consumption and hence help reduce global warming due to the overproduction of carbon dioxide. The other main benefit of the energy audit is to save you money.
To find out how we saved BHK (UK) Ltd. £10,000 per year, see the BHK case study.
Still not sure?
Check out some of the problems we have solved for our clients.
Alternatively contact us today to find out how we can help your organisation to save time and money.