Switching lull in August ‘unexpected’

After several months of rallying figures for electricity supplier switches, there was a surprise fall in activity during August.

The latest figures analysed by Electralink, from the Energy Market Data Hub, show 509,000 change of suppliers (CoS) completed last month. This is a four per cent year-on-year decrease and a drop of six per cent compared to July.

Electralink described the figures as “unexpected”, pointing out that in previous years the market has seen a spike between July and August.

The addition of August’s switches completed brings the total number in 2020 so far to 4.022 million – 100,000 fewer switches than the same eight-month period in 2019.

There were 601,000 CoS started in August, amounting to 12 per cent less than July and nine per cent down on August 2019.

Despite the overall decrease, switching to challenger brands from the big six or other challengers increased compared to August last year. However, switches to big six suppliers from challengers and other big six suppliers decreased.

During the month:

• Big six to big six switches fell to 99,000 – 27 per cent less than August 2019
• Big six to challenger switches reached 209,000 – up 2 per cent year on year
• Challenger to big six switches landed at 57,000 – 17 per cent less than last August
• Challenger to challenger switches reached 143,000 – a year-on-year increase of 20 per cent

Electralink defines the big six as British Gas, SSE, Scottish Power, Npower, Eon and EDF. It said the decline in switches between the big six over the past few months has partly been due to Eon’s acquisition of Npower. There have been switches between the two, as they are still operated as separate brands, so these have been included in Electralink’s latest report. However, it said there has been a more than 75 per cent reduction in Npower-Eon switches this year.

In its latest update the company also referenced Utility Week’s article on the definition of the big six. The company’s full response can be read here.