Electricity retail

Disabled people ‘forgo meals’ to save energy in pandemic

A charity has revealed the extent of the impact the pandemic has had on people with disabilities, with some forgoing meals in order to save energy. Scope, a disability equality charity, conducted an Opinium survey of more than 1,000 disabled people and has released the results in a report titled Covid-19, energy suppliers and their disabled customers.

Cadent Foundation funds ‘green doctors’ with £3m grant

A grant of £3 million is being awarded by the Cadent Foundation to fund ‘green doctors’, energy efficiency experts who will support fuel poor customers. The grant will support the expansion of community action charity Groundwork's green doctors programme, part of a new three-year strategic partnership with the foundation which is funded by the gas network operator. 

Firms should ‘embed fair treatment’ of vulnerable customers

Is it fair to shift policy costs from electricity to gas?

Bulb founder steps down

Government hands out £59 million in cold weather payments

More than 2.3 million cold weather payments, totalling £59 million, are estimated to have already been handed out in the first six weeks of 2021.

EDF Energy suffers £160 million impact from Covid

Real-time energy savings metering is ‘critical’ for retrofitting

A report by a coalition of industry experts has recommended the creation of a new protocol for measuring energy savings in retrofitted homes in real-time. The Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings says a national, standardised way to measure the energy saved by retrofit works is “vital” to unlocking up to £65 billion of investment needed to decarbonise the existing building stock.

On the Move: Bulb hires Amazon exec; Good Energy names Zap-Map CEO

Bulb has brought in a former Amazon executive to beef up its customer services while Good Energy's Zap-Map has named an interim CEO and commercial officer. Utility Week rounds up the latest people moves across the sector.

January saw ‘uncharacteristic dip’ in switching

British Gas is first supplier to raise bills in line with price cap

‘Vague’ Penrose report is ‘good provocation for debate’

A long-awaited report outlining recommendations designed to strengthen the UK’s competition regime has been cautiously welcomed by industry observers but described as lacking in detail. The Power to the People report by Conservative MP John Penrose has a heavy focus on streamlining regulatory processes and creating further competition where possible. It also calls for measures introduced in insurance to tackle 'loyalty penalties' to be extended to energy.

Energy UK calls for post-Brexit VAT cut on energy bills

Octopus and NatWest unveil EV charging bundle

Octopus Energy and NatWest Group have launched an electric vehicle (EV) charging bundle which will allow the bank’s customers to purchase chargers at discounted rates. The joint offering, which the companies claim is the first of its kind, includes the entire stack of infrastructure, technology and software needed to switch to EVs as well as a comprehensive assessment of each customer’s needs.

Six ways to tackle consumer vulnerability

Consumer protection experts share their key asks of utilities in establishing long-term strategies to support a wide range of vulnerabilities.