Scottish Power is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility Iberdrola.
Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and North America.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of Gas Supply (Ofgas).
Electricity provider switching is the ability of power consumers to have an option—or the "power to choose"—their electricity provider in a deregulated electricity market as permitted by a state public utilities governing body.
Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC is a British price comparison website-based business specialising in financial services. The website enables consumers to compare prices on a range of products, including energy car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, mortgages, credit cards and loans. The company also purchased MoneySavingExpert.com for £80 million from Martin Lewis in 2012, becoming a subsidiary of Moneysupermarket. He remains a shareholder in the parent company, selling a small percentage of shares in 2015.
Good Energy Group PLC is a British energy company based in Chippenham, Wiltshire that generates and purchases renewable electricity, and supplies green electricity and gas to homes and businesses throughout the UK. Its CEO is Juliet Davenport. Good Energy was founded to help homes and businesses be part of a sustainable solution to climate change.
Npower Limited is an electricity generator and supplier of gas and electricity to homes and businesses which is based in the United Kingdom, formerly known as Innogy plc. As Innogy plc it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Shopzilla operates a portfolio of shopping web sites, and originally began as a comparison shopping website. In 2014, it rebranded and renamed itself as Connexity.
Green electricity in the United Kingdom. There are a number of suppliers offering green electricity in the United Kingdom. In theory these types of tariffs help to lower carbon dioxide emissions by increasing consumer demand for green electricity and encouraging more renewable energy plant to be built. Since Ofgem's 2014 regulations there are now set criteria defining what can be classified as a green source product. As well as holding sufficient guarantee of origin certificates to cover the electricity sold to consumers, suppliers are also required to show additionality by contributing to wider environmental and low carbon funds.
Energy switching services are companies that have come to exist since the EU began deregulating the gas and electricity markets, to open them to competition, in 1996. Progress has been uneven across member countries, but in the UK there is now open competition among suppliers. Pricing structures and special offers are often complicated enough that it's not obvious which supplier and tariff will be best value for a consumer. This has provided an opportunity for specialist price comparison services. These are chiefly offered by companies who will manage a change to a different supplier and tariff, as well as advising on the best one. These companies primarily operate over the Web, although some also offer a telephone service.
ZPG Ltd is a British company, owned by Silver Lake Partners. ZPG focuses on providing users with access to information such as sold house prices, area trends & statistics and current value estimates for domestic properties in the UK. Its brands include the property website Zoopla, price comparison service uSwitch, finance comparison website Money.co.uk, PrimeLocation and Hometrack. ZPG PLC was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Silver Lake Partners in July 2018.
The New National Consumer Council, operating as Consumer Futures, was a non-departmental public body and statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland. It was established by the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, and began operations in 2008 by the merging of Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils under the Consumer Focus brand.
UK Power is an energy switching and price comparison service, which provides consumers and businesses with advice on energy tariffs. UK Power is one of a small number of switching sites with full accreditation from Consumer Focus, the government watchdog. All Consumer Focus accredited websites are regulated so that they provide an impartial, comprehensive service. UK Power Limited ceased being a Confidence Code accredited site on 1 August 2017.
Ovo Energy is an energy supply company based in Bristol, England. It was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick and began trading energy in September 2009, buying and selling electricity and gas to supply domestic properties throughout the UK. As of June 2017 OVO had 680,000 customers, an increase of 10,000 over the previous year, representing a 2.5% domestic market share. In November 2018, OVO Energy acquired one of its largest competitors, Spark Energy. Although at first one of over 15 smaller energy companies competing with the Big Six which dominate the market, in January 2020 OVO completed the acquisition of the retail arm of SSE, becoming itself one of the Big Six and the country's second largest energy supply company.
The Utilities Intermediaries Association (UIA) is a trade body for UK Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs) in the business energy sector. Registered with the Trade Association Forum it is a company limited by guarantee and runs as a not-for-profit organization, which all TPIs; also known as energy brokers or consultants,, which facilitate the purchasing of electricity and gas between their clients and energy suppliers can join. Business energy TPIs work on behalf of businesses, providing a range of services such as procurement, query resolution, bill checking and energy management etc. in exchange for fees usually factored through the energy suppliers. This had led some TPIs to compromise their neutrality so they can earn the most commission through bias toward the suppliers that pay the most.
UK2 Group is a global provider of Internet services based in the United Kingdom, with data centers in the UK and US; it is currently owned by The Hut Group.
Solarplicity is a renewable energy company based in Hertfordshire, England. Its troubled energy supply division collapsed on 13 August 2019, affecting around 7,500 domestic and 500 business customers. The company continues to trade as Community Energy Scheme, installing solar panels on council and housing association properties.
Spark Energy is an electricity and gas supplier in the United Kingdom, established in 2007 and headquartered in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. Its operating company Spark Energy Supply Ltd entered administration in November 2018, and industry regulator Ofgem appointed OVO Energy to take over Spark Energy's 290,000 customer accounts; OVO continues to run Spark as a separate brand.
Collective Switching is where customers negotiate a group deal with a utility service such as gas or electricity. This is popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Ireland. In the UK, collective switching has always been managed by a third party which gathers the consumers together into a grouping via a registration or membership model and then takes their collective demand to the supply base and obtains from a supplier preferential or bespoke rates for that group of consumers.
Motorway is an online price comparison service based in the UK. It allows users to compare prices from various vehicle purchasing companies.
