suppliers

  • Business supply and services

    Predicted fall in the April 2023 Price Cap but prices remain significantly above the EPG  

    The predictions for the Default Tariff Cap in this piece are out of date, please click here to find our latest forecasts and commentary on the cap. Our latest Default Tariff Cap (price cap) forecasts for April – June 2023 (Q223) have dropped by over £600 since the last widely released figures...

  • Business supply and services

    Ofgem reaches conclusion for the Microbusiness Strategic Review

    The Microbusiness Strategic Review came to a close on 28 March 2022, with four finalised proposals from Ofgem that aim to protect microbusiness consumers and create a more robust framework through which the market can operate. Following the unprecedented rise in wholesale prices and recent geopolitical events, these changes are...

  • Business supply and services

    Wake-up call: Cost pressure in the GB energy market

    This Energy Perspective was published in Issue 791 of Energy Spectrum on 10 January 2022.  The current crises afflicting the energy supply sector, driven by rising energy input costs, are of economy-wide concern. The price of energy has always been an issue of significance for national economic competitiveness, inflation, monetary...

  • Business supply and services

    With great power comes great responsibility – what can be done for customers and suppliers in these challenging times?

    Given that the situation in the wholesale markets shows no signs of abating, both the government and Ofgem have a shared responsibility for helping to steward the energy sector through a period of profound challenges for suppliers as well as for their customers. Furthermore, the risk of structural damage to...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Cliff-hanger: supplier new entry in volatile markets

    The extraordinary developments that have occurred in the energy sector in recent months have led to a tumultuous time for all participants. We have taken a look back through our archives to where we highlighted our concerns a number of years ago that this outcome was, unfortunately, a real possibility. This...

  • Home supply and services

    Will customers pay for suppliers reconsolidating?

    There’s been a lot of media about Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson’s comment about a “massacre” in the retail energy market. The spectre of a return to a handful of domestic energy suppliers has been raised. We are certainly going to a world of many fewer suppliers, in my...

  • Home supply and services

    Shaken, not stirred: The fate of the supply market

    This Energy market perspective was taken from our Energy Spectrum publication on 4 October 2021. To find out more about a free trial to Energy Spectrum, find out more here or contact Robert on r.buckley@cornwall-insight.com. As we enter the winter 2021-22 trading season, the energy supply market remains in intense...

  • Home supply and services

    37 suppliers remain in domestic energy market

    2021 has seen 14 domestic supply market exits to date, including the most recent three companies to use the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process on Wednesday 29 September 2021: Igloo Energy (0.59% market share), Symbio Energy (0.04% market share) and ENSTROGA (0.09% market share). In September alone, nine suppliers...

  • Business supply and services

    Have we given up on competition in the retail market?

    “Q: How does 2pm on Wednesday sound? A: Assuming we still have a functioning energy market that'd be great”.  It’s not really what you expect to see in an email at 5pm on a Friday when trying to arrange a call. But then these are certainly not normal times. In this Energy Perspective, we will...

  • Regulation and policy

    How will consumers take to Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement?

    Ofgem published its decision to implement the move to Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS) on 20 April. This confirms plans to move to new settlement arrangements over a four and a half year time period, with the Elexon-led Design Working Group’s Target Operating Model to be used as the blueprint. Meters...

  • Regulation and policy

    Calm before the storm? 2021 energy supplier compliance developments

    The latest update to our Energy Supplier Compliance Portal went live on 4 May and includes changes to the compliance landscape during February to April 2021. While the previous quarter’s update reflected new principles resulting from Ofgem’s Supplier Licensing Review (SLR) and protections for prepayment meter customers facing self-disconnection, Q121...

  • Business supply and services

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: the RO late payment deadline

    Today (11 November 2020) Ofgem has confirmed that there will be mutualisation of the 2019-20 Renewables Obligation. On Monday, in our 'Energy Spectrum' Perspective, we explained to customer’s why this was important and likely and what it means for the energy industry. Find out more about a free trial to Energy...

  • Business supply and services

    Responses to COVID-19 boost energy suppliers’ reputations with customers

    2020 is, unfortunately, proving to be a year that we will never forget. It has been a year of change and adaptability for us all, including domestic energy suppliers, with many suppliers having had to adapt to increasing numbers of customers in distress while operating at reduced capacity and/or with...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    FiT costs to reach all-time high amid COVID outbreak

    Energy Third Party Charges (TPCs) have certainly been in the limelight recently, and rightly so as less consumption from non-domestic sectors is resulting in a greater recovery of money from domestic households amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Several measures have been taken to date to protect domestic suppliers and consumers from...

  • Regulation and policy

    Building foundations: Improving outcomes for vulnerable customers now and in the future

    The standards of conduct in the electricity and gas supply licences set out that suppliers must ensure that “each Domestic Customer, including each Domestic Customer in a Vulnerable Situation, is treated Fairly”. This licence condition is principles-based and so exactly how each supplier interprets it is up to them. Although,...

  • Home supply and services

    Making gains: Electricity switching

    The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities published its January 2020 Customer Switching Report for the Electricity and Gas Retail Markets on 12 March. In this edition of the blog, we compare electricity supplier’s net switching positions. We also look at what new suppliers are making gains in retail market share. Click here...

  • Regulation and policy

    Editor’s Pick | BEIS announces new measures to protect PPM customers

    New measures are being introduced to protect prepayment meter (PPM) customers during the Covid-19 outbreak, BEIS announced on 19 March. PPM customers, who may not be able to add credit can speak to their supplier about options to keep them supplied. This could include nominating a third party for credit top...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    COVID-19 virus and the GB energy sector webinar

    This webinar explores our take on the emerging disruptions to the electricity and gas markets as COVID-19 tightens its grip on the UK. We highlight how the struggles of consumers in managing the virus has already caused unintended consequences for suppliers. Also, how these consequences could develop in the coming weeks...

  • Regulation and policy

    Principles-based SEG-ulation

    The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) went live on 1 January 2020. While billions around the world were welcoming in a new decade, new obligations meant that from that moment all suppliers with over 150,000 domestic electricity customers had to have a SEG compliant tariff. A SEG compliant tariff, simply put,...

  • Home supply and services

    Not mushroom for competitive prices: Switching behaviours in the SEM

    The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published its August 2019 Customer Switching Report for the Electricity and Gas Retail Markets on 24 September. In this edition of the blog, we compare monthly switching trends with CRU’s quarterly Electricity and Gas Retail Markets Report to explore whether fluctuations in...

  • Regulation and policy

    Progress or Regress? – The Vulnerability Conundrum

    On 25 September Ofgem released its Vulnerable Consumers in the Energy Market: 2019 report. The report shows how well suppliers are doing in supporting those customers who need extra help. The results are mixed, with some good progress being made, but there are clear challenges that still need to be...

  • Home supply and services

    NI electricity prices are rising – All you knead to know

    Last week two of the largest electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland, Electric Ireland and SSE Airtricity, announced they are raising electricity prices for domestic customers by 8% and 6.9% respectively from 01 October 2019. These increases come days after the announcement from Northern Ireland’s largest supplier, Power NI, that they...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Love Ireland: Retail market trends in 2018

    The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published it's 2018 Electricity and Gas Retail Markets Annual Report on 8 July. The document summarised the key trends over the year, which covered switching, price changes and market share of the incumbent suppliers. In this blog, we look at some of...

  • Home supply and services

    Innovation and regulation – changes on the horizon for auto-switching

    In this week’s Flexible and Responsive Energy Retail Markets consultation[1], the government and Ofgem stated that “the ability of the current arrangements to provide consistent and appropriate protections is already tested by the growing role of price comparison, auto-switching and brokering services”. As an unlicensed sector, the regulator has set out different...

  • Home supply and services

    Smarter than you: Customers and smart metering

    Across markets, there is an emergent trend of some suppliers looking to move beyond a pure retail relationship and to position themselves as providers of consumer experience by leveraging new technology and services to improve customer engagement, and loyalty, for example, providing services such as Electric Vehicles (EV) or smart...

  • Regulation and policy

    Suppliers to identify engagement opportunities

    Following stakeholder engagement throughout last year, Ofgem’s reforms to domestic customer-supplier communications will be effective from 11 February 2019. In less than two weeks’ time, suppliers are expected to be delivering proactive approaches to engaging consumers in accordance with five enforceable principles set out under four new supply licence conditions....

  • Home supply and services

    Picking Winner: Valuation drivers in the energy supply

    For more than a decade the number of active licensed energy suppliers has been increasing, slowly at first but dozens a year more recently. This year though that number has tipped in to decline as companies such as Flow Energy, Iresa and Affect Energy have for different reasons left the...

  • Home supply and services

    Risin’ up – Suppliers increase domestic energy prices

    Over recent weeks a number of domestic electricity suppliers in Ireland have announced price increases as a result of higher wholesale energy costs. In this week’s blog, we look at these increases and examine the drivers behind them. Click here to view full article

  • Home supply and services

    Same as it ever was – I-SEM transition and the domestic retail market

    Up to ten weeks ago we would have expected to be a full week into the new I-SEM wholesale market. Most commentary on the I-SEM delay has focused on the impact on market systems and generators, but what of electricity suppliers? The transition to I-SEM offers an opportunity for tariff...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    This week’s Energy Spectrum overview | 16 April 2018

    In this week’s Energy Perspective, we review the BEIS consultation on the next phase of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO3). We argue that although at first glance proposals for ECO3 give the impression that it is business as usual, there are some key changes taking place going into this next...