Companies

About 657,000 households switched electricity supplier last month, the second highest figure on record, after rising prices prompted people to shop around. The surge follows Ofgem’s decision to allow suppliers to raise prices for 15 million households on standard or prepayment tariffs from the start of April. Energy UK, the industry body, said that more than 2.1 million households had switched supplier so far this year, slightly ahead of this stage in 2019, when switching hit a record high. Ofgem controls how much suppliers can charge 11 million customers on default tariffs through the energy price cap, introduced by the government at the start of 2019. The regulator updates the level of the cap twice a year.

The Times 17th May 2021 read more »

Entrepreneurs often describe the process of raising venture funding for their businesses as gruelling and Steven Day, co-founder of the green energy provider Pure Planet, is no exception. The pitch was simple: they were building a renewable energy company that offered customers green power at a lower price than fossil fuels. It could do that and still make money by buying well in the wholesale markets, keeping overheads low and being as digital as possible from the get-go. After presenting to 70 venture capital (VC) firms over six months in 2016, however, Day and his two co-founders, Tom Alexander and Andrew Ralston, realised that they were pitching to the wrong people. “We met lots of investors who weren’t right for us, didn’t have the profile or weren’t big enough in terms of the kind of money that we were asking for,” Day, 53, said.

Times 13th May 2021 read more »

More than 1,000 staff based at one of Gloucester’s biggest employers are set to move to a new base after EDF announced plans to close it 22-acre Brockworth headquarters. The French-owned business said the move would begin in mid-2022 as part of its attempt to reposition itself in the face of a changing UK energy sector. EDF took over what was British Energy in 2009 with the Gloucester operation continuing to be home to some of the nation’s leading nuclear scientists, engineers and support staff. It has been helping to keep the nation’s lights on ever since. ‘While Barnwood has served us very well for the last 45 years, we all believe the time is now right to move on,’ said a statement from the company. The changing nature of the UK energy sector means its Barnwood base will be ‘too big’. Its new site ‘will provide a newer and more appropriate working environment for our people’. EDF currently has an estimated 1,200 employees and 300 agency staff and contractors at Brockworth. At the height of the pandemic, it managed with just 300 a day on the site. By 2030, the company plans to move from operating eight nuclear power stations – providing 15 to 20 per cent of the country’s power – to just two operating stations: Sizewell B in Suffolk and Hinkley Point C in Somerset, providing nearer 10 per cent. The company is also planning Sizewell C, an almost identical replica of Hinkley Point C, which could create thousands of skilled jobs and business opportunities and generate enough low-carbon power to supply over six million homes every year. EDF said there was also significant work to be done defueling the seven Advanced Gas cooled Reactors, starting in 2022 when Hunterston B in Scotland and Hinkley Point B in Somerset end their power generation phase.

So Glos 14th May 2021 read more »

Octopus Energy saw its revenue grow +160% in the fiscal year 2019/2020, jumping from £477 million to £1.24 billion. Since then, this has continued to grow with the company estimating it will reach £2 billion by the year end April 2021. Gross margins increased from 0.8% to 5.4% (6.8x) driven predominantly by efficiency enabled by Kraken technologies, while gross profit increased from £3.5 million to £67 million (+1,800%). Despite this growth, the company has posted a £53 million loss for the year 2019/2020 due to “relentless investments” in international expansion, technology development, product innovation and customer growth.

Current 12th May 2021 read more »

The British Gas owner Centrica has reported a tough start to the year and warned that it was still unable to give any financial guidance for 2021 because of the uncertain outlook. Businesses used 15 per cent less electricity in the first quarter as lockdown forced many to remain closed, Britain’s biggest energy supplier said in a brief trading update before its annual meeting yesterday. Installations of boilers in homes were down by 11 per cent from a year earlier and non-essential services visits were postponed “in order to protect colleagues and customers from the risks of catching and spreading Covid-19”.

Times 11th May 2021 read more »