Energy Management for Business

More than 10% of the UK’s CO₂ emissions come from businesses and the public sector. We supply over 200,000 business customers, and know that managing their energy more effectively can lead to significant savings of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of pounds.

We work closely with our business customers to understand their energy use and help them to manage their energy use and energy purchasing more effectively.
We offer free, dedicated energy efficiency advice to help SME customers reduce their carbon footprint and costs through a range of products and services.

For our larger business customers, managing energy use and energy purchasing correctly can have a big impact. We have a responsibility to help our customers reduce their exposure to energy risk, reduce their carbon footprint and improve their energy management. In order to achieve this, it is crucial that we understand our business customers’ requirements.

An important way for businesses to better manage their energy is to understand their consumption and identify inefficiencies. In 2011, we introduced a new version of our energy management software, encompass, to simplify this for customers. Monitoring and tracking energy consumption is a key way to managing participation in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC).

The CRC came into force in 2010: companies with an annual energy use of 6,000MW or more must submit information on their energy use, and from 2013, purchase allowances for every tonne of carbon dioxide they produce. Our CRC Assist service has supported business customers with their CRC scheme participation, by increasing their understanding of the scheme and helping them to develop an energy management strategy, which is key to implementing energy efficiency measures and driving down consumption.

In 2011, we held a series of round tables and briefings with our customers and business lobbying groups such as the Major Energy Users' Council and the Energy Intensive Users' Group on some of the key topics affecting businesses, including market policy, credit insurance and the CRC.

Energy remains a big issue for industrial and large commercial organisations in the UK, and from the briefings and roundtables we have carried out, we understand that the risk surrounding market reform and energy legislation is a key concern for our business customers.

We invited opinion from our customers on energy regulation and legislation as part of the Government’s Red Tape Challenge. Our campaign - Red Tape Challenge: Have Your Say – created a forum for our customers to share their views on what energy regulation they think should exist, be amended or scrapped altogether, and attracted more than 100 contributions, which were documented and submitted to the Government.

At the end of 2011, we were awarded ‘Best Risk Management Product and Service of the Year’ at the Energy Awards for Flexible Power Innovate – a new risk management product for sophisticated energy buyers to is to help customers better manage their exposure to risk when buying energy.