Franck Latrémolière thinks Amazon would make a decent fist of energy supply at scale and might become the catalyst for wholesale systemic change. Combining Npower with the residential supply business of SSE will create a business which will have lots of customers, including many apathetic (also known as profitable) ones, but no particular competitive advantage. This Read more…

Electron’s strategy director, Jon Ferris, explodes some of the myths surrounding blockchain’s security, scalability and energy consumption. The increasing media coverage of bitcoin may lead to a wider and better understanding of blockchain in the long term, but in the short term has entrenched a number of myths about security, scalability and energy consumption. Bitcoin Read more…

Fossil giant Shell is to buy the UK’s largest independent energy supplier First Utility. The move, subject to regulatory approvals, represents a significant challenge to the established order. It is due to complete early next year. Shell confirmed it was entering the I&C supply market in August. Buying First Utility gives it around 825,000 household Read more…

Laura Bazeley, risk manager at Mitie Energy, gives a snapshot of key market, political and regulatory developments that will impact business energy bills and strategies over the year ahead. Commodity costs and wholesale prices Energy markets face significant uncertainty in the first quarter of 2018 as the UK faces its first winter without any flexible Read more…

Lancashire-based Businesswise Solutions plans to double its headcount and open a London office following a series of big name client wins. In recent months the firm has added AO.com, DFS, Daisy Group and Burnley Football Club to its client roster. Boss Frazer Durris said the firm has set aside a £1m budget to double its headcount Read more…

Energy supplier Yü, which suppliers power and gas to SMEs and corporates, will bundle in water services to businesses after Ofwat granted its licence application. The company will trade as Yü Water. Selling both water and energy to business clients can potentially deliver savings on administration and procurement costs. A survey by The Energyst 12 months Read more…

Lancashire-based LG Energy Group has acquired a controlling interest in Liverpool’s Guild Energy for an undisclosed sum. LGE managing director, Asif Rizvi, said the acquisition boosts the consultancy’s footprint and broadens its market coverage, adding Guild’s largely SME customer base to LGE’s predominantly industrial and commercial operation. “The sharing of people, knowledge and systems across Read more…

MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) Select Committee have urged the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the proposed merger between SSE and Npower. Committee chair Rachel Reeves pointed out that the merger would lmake the Big Six the Big Five and leave almost half of UK retail energy accounts in the Read more…

Blockchain is being talked up as an enabler of systemic change with in the energy sector. Can it deliver, asks Mark Taylor, managing director at VuePoint Solutions At VuePoint Solutions, we love to see new technologies coming along with the potential to enhance the market (we dislike the word “disrupt” as that infers causing a Read more…

Pennon Group expects significant earnings growth from its energy from waste business. Posting half year results, the firm increased profit after tax by 26% to £112m, driven by higher customer demand for water and back office savings from the integration Bournemouth Water as well as high availability of Viridor’s energy from waste facilities. The company Read more…

Utility Warehouse believes there is more growth to come from bundling communications and energy services to customers and is considering boiler installation, services and breakdown cover while maintaining a “watching brief” on TV packages. However, the firm’s half year results to 30 September show slowing growth and a dip in its business members. Although residential Read more…

Npower has reassured its business customers that they will not experience billing problems as a result of the proposed merger of its retail operations with SSE’s. If the deal goes ahead, SSE will keep its business-to-business customers, while the new retail company will combine SSE’s domestic customers and Npower’s domestic and business customers. The merger Read more…

Dylan Crompton, head of corporate sales at British Gas Business, explains the myriad options available to large businesses seeking to align energy procurement with corporate social responsibility goals. For many years, the best way to demonstrate a business’s commitment to decarbonisation was to select a green electricity tariff. With the majority of suppliers, the cost Read more…

SSE and Innogy’s boards have agreed to merge their retail operations. The news comes as SSE posted half year results which showed further customer losses. The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals but SSE said it aimed to complete the transaction by end of 2018 or early 2019. SSE will seek shareholder approval Read more…

SSE has confirmed it is in talks with Npower owner Innogy about merging their respective supply businesses. In a statement, SSE said its board “has been in discussions with Innogy SE about creating a new independent energy supply company to which would be contributed: SSE’s household energy supply and services business in Great Britain; and Read more…

Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy will partner two new white label operations. Islington Council’s Angelic Energy launched this week while Doncaster’s Great North Energy launches next month. Both are not-for-profit and have similar aims to help lift residents out of fuel poverty. Doncaster said its collective switching exercise in 2014 cut bills by £450,000. It believes Read more…

SME energy platform Love Energy Savings has hired ex-utility staff in a bid to attract industrial and commercial firms to its new third party intermediary service. The company says Love Energy Solutions will make transparency over fees and commission one of its core principles. “There is a clear need for more openness within the energy Read more…

Former Npower head of new business development Jon Davies has launched a new energy switching app for small businesses. With price comparison sites predominantly focused on deals for households, Davies believes Switching Energy’s free app fills a gap in the market. The company says it enables small businesses to obtain a quote, contract with the Read more…