Electricity switching ‘put back’ by five years in 2021

Electricity switching was effectively put back by five years in 2021, Electralink has revealed in its latest update.

Overall, 2021 saw 4.9 million successful changes of supplier, which is 18% less than the previous year and more than a fifth less than in 2019. The last time switches were lower was in 2016 when they totalled 4.8 million.

Switching in the final month of the year saw a new low since records began in 2012 as high wholesale costs forced a plethora of suppliers out of the market, resulting in customers being transferred via the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process.

Electralink explained there is usually a dip in switching during the Christmas period. However, December set a new record low of 112,00 – down from 131,000 in November and 77% less than in December 2020.

Changes of supplier (CoS) started in December also plunged to a record low. Just 141,000 CoS were initiated – at least 74% fewer than December 2020 and more than 20,000 fewer than the previous record low set in November.

The number of completed switches in January will likely be less than December’s figure, with analysts predicting they could fall below 100,000 in January.

Of all switches in December:

• Large to large switches reached 64,000 – 73% less than December 2020 and 57% of December 2021’s total switches completed,
• Large to other switches reached 19,000 – 87% less than December 2020 and 18% of December 2021’s total switches completed,
• Other to large switches landed at 21,000 – 70% less than December 2020 and 17% of December 2021’s total switches completed,
• And other to other switches hit 9,000 – 81% less than December 2020 and 8% of December 2021’s total switches completed.

Electralink does not count switches from the SoLR process or trade sales in its reporting but said including all the switching activity due to supplier mergers and SoLRs, there were more than 11.2 million switches in 2021; a 37% increase on 2020.

This means nearly a third of all meter points went through the process last year but less than half of those were at the request of a customer.

Regional analysis found that Yorkshire saw the highest level of engagement, with almost 16% of MPANs going through a customer-initiated switch. North Scotland saw the lowest, with around 12%

The most active meter in 2021 switched 14 times, three switches lower than the previous record set by the same meter in 2020.

Further analysis shows that last year 1.1 million meters switched supplier voluntarily for the first time. This takes the total number of meters that have switched since April 2012 to 19.75 million, meaning roughly 63% of customers have chosen to change supplier in the last decade.

It also means there are around 11 million MPANs that, unless they have been sold or merged, are still with the same supplier as they were in 2012.