Yu Energy offers free power to business customers

Yu Energy has become the second supplier in the space of a week to offer two months’ worth of free power to customers.

The company said in an announcement this morning (27 April) that its retail arm was launching two new energy plans for new businesses customers – one offering free energy for two months under a two-year contract and the other offering a fixed-rate plan for three months.

Last week challenger brand Neo Energy’s chief executive Oliver Freidrich told Utility Week it was offering new domestic customers two months of free energy in June and July, provided they sign up before the end of April, to help consumers during the pandemic.

Yu said that both its Assist and Agile tariffs had been developed to tackle two key challenges currently facing businesses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and would be available until 30 June.

The Assist energy plan provides new small business customers with two months’ free energy at the start of a two-year contract (one month for a one year contract). The free energy allowance will be capped based on the expected average monthly energy usage (average annual usage divided by 12) with any additional energy charged at a unit price agreed at the start of the contract.

It is available to businesses using a maximum of 50,000 kWh of electricity per year or 150,000 kWh of gas.

Meanwhile the Agile energy tariff is available to all business customers and offers a three-month plan. After providing 30 days’ notice, customers may move to a different fixed rate energy plan at the end of the initial three-month contract. If customers take no action, they will revert onto the supplier’s Freedom tariff, a rolling 30 day contract.

Bobby Kalar, chief executive of Yu Group, said: “We recognise that it’s tough for businesses right now and it’s becoming increasingly important that they manage their cost base effectively. Our new energy plans address two key concerns for businesses: keeping energy costs as low as possible over the next few months and securing competitive rates without a long-term contract commitment.

“Over the coming months we’ll be continuing to look for further ways to develop our service offering to help businesses through these unprecedented times.”

Yu Group, which was formed by Kalar in 2014 and was listed on the AIM market two years later, supplies gas, electricity and water, focused on servicing the corporate sector throughout the UK.

At the end of 2019 it operated 8,724 meter points.