Everything But The Weed

Approved by:
Linda Maze, a Wedding photography Gainesville FL in Gainesville Florida

Any business knows that it is important to manage costs, particularly when running a business is as hard as it is presently. Looking into the future a little, one of the most difficult of those costs to manage will be business electricity prices, due to their volatility and expected long term increases.

It is true to say that there are basically only 2 methods of lowering the price of your business electricity usage. You can lower the cost of the electricity that you use or you can use less of it.

Given that we know nothing about the state of your business, or its future energy needs, we cannot possibly advise you on how to try and use less energy, be it gas or electric. What we can give you some ideas on though is how to lower the amount you pay per unit for your business electricity.

The most effective action you can take is to contact as many energy companies as you can and ask them for a quote. It sounds blindingly obvious, but it is depressing how many businesses simply stay with the same energy company for ever, without even bothering to check what competitive business electricity prices are.

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 isn’t easy to run a business these days, it isn’t going to get a whole lot easier in the future and you’ll often have far more pressing things to do than devoting time and resources to managing your business electricty costs and usage. But you must be aware of the dangers of spiralling electrity costs in the future, and the increasing necessity of taking action now and annually to minimize those costs.