Pandemic had ‘minimal effect’ on switching in 2020

Despite a significant decrease during the first lockdown Covid-19 appears to have had a minimal effect on electricity switching overall in 2020, data from Electralink shows.

Figures from the company’s Energy Market Data Hub (EMDH) published today (13 January) show there were 6.2 million changes of supplier events in 2020 – just 2.3 per cent down from a record 6.3 million in 2019.

The results show that 2020 was the first time in six years switches have failed to increase year on year.

Switches reached the 6 million mark after 493,000 were recorded in December 2020 – 8 per cent less than November and 6.4 percent less than December 2019, but higher than December 2018.

The same pattern of there being less switches in December compared to November is something that has been recorded in six of the nine years on record, and the 8 per cent drop is lower than the average decrease between the months across those years.

There was less of a decrease for switches started in 2020 compared to the year before. More than 7.5 million switches were raised during the year, only 0.7 percent less than 2019.

December 2020 racked up 520,000 switches begun – 15 per cent less than November 2020 and 7.4 per cent less than December 2019.

Electralink said that in terms of switching types, all four categories are down on the previous month and fluctuated compared to the same month last year.

• Large to large switches reached 221,000 – 16 per cent less than December 2019 and 45 per cent of December 2020’s total switches completed
• Large to other switches reached 142,000 – 15 per cent more than December 2019 and 29 per cent of December 2020’s total switches completed
• Other to large switches landed at 79,000 – 14 per cent less than December 2019 and 16 per cent of December 2020’s total switches completed
• And other to other switches hit 51,000 – 8 per cent more than December 2019 and 10 per cent of December 2020’s total switches completed

Looking at net gains over the year, the company said the former big six brands lost more than 1.3 million customers – the fifth year in a row with more than a million net losses. Since 2012, the traditional large legacy suppliers have sustained net losses of a combined 10 million customers.

Additionally 2020 saw the larger challengers lose customers through switching, although they gained market share due to acquisitions and the supplier of last resort process. Small suppliers meanwhile (with less than 1 per cent market share) gained 639,000 customers. This is the sixth year in a row that smaller suppliers have made the most gains of any supplier category.

Electralink further revealed that the same MPAN that completed 16 switches in 2019 is once again the record holder, this time by switching a total of 17 times. Just under 600,000 MPANs switched twice or more during 2020.