Related Research Articles
An intermediary, also known as a middleman or go-between, is defined differently by context. In law or diplomacy, an intermediary is a third party that offers intermediation services between two parties. In trade or barter, an intermediary acts as a conduit for goods or services offered by a supplier to a consumer, which may include wholesalers, resellers, brokers, and various other services.
Scottish Power Limited, trading as ScottishPower, is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, 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).
Good Energy Group PLC is a British energy company based in Chippenham, Wiltshire that provides services in the electrification of transport and decentralised renewable energy generation such as domestic solar panels. The company is also an energy retailer, and built a portfolio of wind and solar generation which was sold in 2022. Founded by Juliet Davenport, its CEO is Nigel Pocklington.
Utility Warehouse is a multiservice provider based in London, England that uses multi-level marketing to obtain customers through independent distributors. It is a brand name of its parent company, Telecom Plus. It currently handles approximately 1 million customer accounts. Utility Warehouse supplies customers with landline telephony, mobile telephony, broadband, gas, and electricity. The Utility Warehouse brand is the primary engine of revenue generation for Telecom Plus.
Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. Users can conveniently compare prices across various sectors f energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications
The availability and uptake of green electricity in the United Kingdom has increased in the 21st century. 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.
In the United Kingdom, an electricity supplier is a retailer of electricity. For each supply point the supplier has to pay the various costs of transmission, distribution, meter operation, data collection, tax etc. The supplier then adds in energy costs and the supplier's own charge. Regulation of the charging of customers is covered by the industry regulator Ofgem.
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.
OVO Energy is a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England.
Shell Energy Retail Limited was a British consumer gas, electricity and broadband provider. Formerly a subsidiary of Shell, the business was acquired by Octopus Energy in December 2023.
100Green, operating as Green Energy (UK) Ltd, is a British independent-energy company based in Ware, Hertfordshire. It was established in 2001 by CEO Douglas Stewart. The company provides Ofgem-certified renewable electricity and green gas to a variety of customers, including homes, businesses, and organizations throughout Great Britain. It is currently the only energy supplier in the UK to offer 100% green gas.
Co-op Energy is a membership-owned British energy supply company based in Warwick that began trading in 2010. It sells renewable electricity and gas to its ethically concerned member owner/customers and is an established large operator, an alternative to the Big Six energy suppliers. Constituting half or more of the Your Co-op Utilities division of its parent society Midcounties Co-operative, Co-op Energy is the only co-operative supplier in the British market, meaning supplied customers can voluntarily acquire an ownership share and thereby receive rights to influence the governance of the business, stand for election and have a say in formulating the products it offers.
The Big Six were the United Kingdom's largest retail suppliers of gas and electricity, who dominated the market following liberalisation in the late 1990s. By 2002, six companies – British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE npower, Scottish Power and SSE – had emerged from the 15 former incumbent monopoly suppliers.
Energy brokers assist clients in procuring electric or natural gas from energy wholesalers/suppliers. Since electricity and natural gas are commodities, prices change daily with the market. It is challenging for most businesses without energy managers to obtain price comparisons from a variety of suppliers since prices must be compared on exactly the same day. In addition, the terms of the particular contract offered by the supplier influences the price that is quoted. An energy broker can provide a valuable service if they work with a large number of suppliers and can actually compile the sundry prices from suppliers. An important aspect of this consulting role is to assure that the client understands the differences between the contract offers. Under some State Laws they use the term "Suppliers" to refer to energy suppliers, brokers, and aggregators, however there are very important differences between them all.
Solarplicity Energy Limited was a renewable energy company based in Hertfordshire, England. In August 2019 the company became the 13th energy supplier to collapse since 2018, affecting around 7,500 domestic and 500 business customers.
BES Utilities is a UK-based, independently owned group of companies, comprising Business Energy Solutions Ltd and BES Commercial Electricity Ltd. With offices based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, BES Utilities provides commercial electricity and gas to businesses across the United Kingdom.
Spark Energy was 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, but is in the process of migrating all its customers to the SSE 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.
References
- ↑ "Utilities Intermediaries Association". Companies House. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- ↑ "Memberships". UIA. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- 1 2 "Accredited Members". UIA. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- ↑ Small businesses call on Ofgem to outlaw rollover contracts Utility Week, 9 September 2009
- ↑ Ofgem Condition 7A
