When it comes to electricity, small and medium size enterprises can never assume they are getting a good deal. In fact, it’s safe to say that – as the market stands today – businesses should assume the opposite is true, and that they are being taken for a ride by the big six energy providers. One of several smaller providers of business electricity, Electricity4Business has just compiled a free guide to help electricity customers see through the dirty tricks.
Despite the bad publicity heaped on industry fat cats, over 20% of customers have never switched electricity providers since deregulation of the market. The reason is that they simply don’t have access to the right information. This document not only states the case for switching, it also provides all the necessary information and shows businesses how to carry it through.
In the UK, the chances are high that a small or medium size business receives its electricity from one of the six major companies. In fact, between them, British Gas, EDF Energy, Npower, Powergen, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power share 96% of the market. Despite the promise of competition through deregulation, all of these providers have routinely been able to raise prices by putting their customers on ‘evergreen’ fixed-price contracts that are automatically extended for months or even years unless the costumer takes timely action. If businesses fail to provide notice within a specified period, suppliers reserve the right to increase prices, even as the wholesale price of electricity goes down. As a result, customers that signed up to a long-term contract in early 2006 – when energy wholesale prices were at their peak – are often paying double or even triple today’s market price for their electricity.
If companies are wise to the tricks they can expect from their electricity supplier, they can switch and slash their electricity bills at a stroke. It’s as simple as that, many of the customers at Electricity4Business save in excess of