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If you’re running a business, you’ll know that extra costs appear from all angles. Gas & electricity bills can get expensive, with businesses typically using far more than households. As such, it’s important to keep on top of your tariffs, and to make sure that you’re never paying over the odds for the gas or electricity supply at your place of work, whatever that may be.
Our commercial energy comparison service is suitable for all kinds of business, from SMEs to larger companies. Whether you run a shop or a restaurant, or work from an office, it’s always a good idea to compare gas and electricity prices to make sure that you’re always benefitting from the best deals around.
These days, businesses are often on the look our for ways to reduce their negative environmental impact. If you’re concerned with your businesses carbon footprint, you’re in the right place – we can get you switched to a green energy supplier right away.
We show you tariffs from every supplier on the market offering gas and electricity for business. You won’t be able to get dual fuel tariffs for businesses, so if you use both gas and electricity, you’ll have to compare them separately. This will let you ensure you’re getting the absolute most for your money.
Business contracts differ to ordinary domestic tariffs, largely due to the differing needs of a business compared to a home. We’ll quickly cover the unique features of commercial energy tariffs and switching so that you know what to look out for and what to expect.
Switching between energy tariffs on the domestic market is easy. You type in your details onto a comparison website, like Simply Switch, and you’ll be presented immediately with a list of reliable suppliers along with quotes. But this isn’t how it works in the business energy market. Because the needs of businesses differ dramatically from business to business, it’s not usually possible to provide them with energy quotes on the spot like it is for domestic households. Unlike households which have roughly equivalent energy needs, the needs of companies differ significantly. As a result, business customers need to approach energy suppliers individually to get bespoke energy quotes.
In the domestic energy market, many suppliers bundle gas and electric into a single contract. But as a business customer, you have to secure gas and electric contracts separately, since suppliers don’t package them up together. Business customers, therefore, aren’t shopping around for the best “energy” deal per se. Rather, they’re looking for the best deals on gas and electricity under separate contracts. Buying the two separately can be more of a hassle than getting them together, but it also means you’ll be able to get better deals overall.
Domestic customers are a relatively homogenous bunch: the energy requirements of households don’t differ by a lot. But for businesses, it’s a different story. Because the needs of companies differ dramatically depending on their industry, each energy quote is bespoke. Suppliers assess their business customers individually, using energy usage data from other similar businesses to estimate their energy requirements before offering a price. What’s more, once you’ve signed up to a contract, you’ll need to stick with it – businesses can have trouble switching more than 6 months before the end of the contract’s stated term.
Eventually, business energy contracts come to an end. If you haven’t signed a new contract or renewed your old contract, most suppliers will put you on called “deemed rates.” Deemed rates are temporary rates the supplier charges for the provision of energy, but they’re usually a lot more expensive than regular, in-contract prices. Businesses, therefore, should work hard to avoid deemed rates whenever possible.
The good news is that you can opt out of deemed rates by giving your energy supplier 30 days notice. But to avoid higher tariffs the best strategy is to plan your contracts in advance, making sure that you immediately move from one to another without paying inflated prices in the interim
It’s worth noting that not all suppliers will provide you with energy quotes. The likelihood that your business will get a quote depends on two factors.
If your credit rating is low, suppliers may worry that they won’t get paid and might not offer you a contract. Additionally, if your usage is very high or very low, some suppliers may not be able to meet your requirements and may decide not to offer you a quote.
When you’re offered bespoke quotes for gas and electricity, it can be difficult to work out whether you’re getting a good deal or not. Prices might seem high (or low), but without knowing how much energy you’ll actually use, you won’t know whether the quote you receive is competitive.
Because each individual business is unique, it’s hard to put a figure on what’s a good price to pay. However, experts recommend that small and medium-sized businesses should pay between 10.5 and 12.5 pence per unit.
Your actual bill may fall outside that range because of the fact that you need to cover the fixed costs of the energy supplier, including the cost of maintaining the power network and the cost of transporting energy to your location. These costs are known as “standing charges” and vary from supplier to supplier, depending on their overhead. Your final tariff, therefore, will depend on a broad range of factors.
Remember, the cheapest tariff may seem like the most enticing, but it might not be the best for your business if the supplier cannot cater for your specific needs. The risk with cheap providers is that they will provide a substandard service. Though you may save a small amount of money in the short term, interruptions to your energy supply could mean that you lose a lot more money in the long-term. Always read the terms and conditions of business energy contracts carefully to make sure that your company isn’t at risk of unexpected downtime.
