Business energy supplier proposes water market expansion

Business-to-business energy supplier D-Energi is planning to expand into the English water market when it opens to competition in April next year.

A spokesperson for the company told Utility Week: “We are looking to diversify into the water market like we have done for renewables biomass, and solar PV.”

The company has also announced that it has secured £1.5 million in funding from HSBC, and plans to double its workforce to 200 employees over the next 2 or 3 years.

D-Energi was founded in 2002 by two brothers Shak and Zico Ahmed, who started the firm with £30,000 from cash they had saved and a loan from the family. It is based in Manchester, and specialises in supplying gas and electricity to the commercial market.

Now, in its fifteenth year of trading, the company has met and surpassed its sales target of £10 million. Audited figures show turnover has increased to just under £11 million.

The firm’s energy portfolio is around 3,000 customers all in the business energy market (care homes, hotels, schools and manufacturers). It is looking to increase its partner-channel-working with energy brokers and consultants, and to double the size of its sales team from 30 to 60.

As well as supplying gas and electricity, D-Energi helps businesses meet the new legislative energy obligations, by offering opportunities to generate their own carbon-free electricity and heat through solar and biomass.

D-Energi is the fourth energy supplier to have expressed tentative interest in the water market so far.

Corona Energy told Utility Week earlier this month that it is “reviewing opportunities in water” and Ecotricity chief executive Dale Vince exclusively told Utility Week last month that the company is interested in the water market, and would look to bring “an eco-approach to water”.

Regent Water – a subsidiary of gas supplier Regent Gas – applied to Ofwat for a water supply and sewerage licence last month.