Centrica’s UK business division returned £40m profit in 2018, a 900% improvement after the collapse of 2017. The company shed a further 9 per cent of its larger business customers, with industrial and commercial (I&C) accounts now standing at 106,000. Centrica said it is “focusing I&C acquisition and retention activity on those that have a Read more…

This spring, the London Energy Project will launch a tender for up to £500m worth of energy per annum for public buildings and street lighting. The aim is to find the greenest, best value contracts that enable local authorities, health authorities and other public sector customers in London and the South to cut carbon and Read more…

Utilitywise is in administration having failed to find a buyer or raised enough money to stay in business. The company will immediately close its enterprise division, by far the largest part of its business, which acted as a third party intermediary (TPI) for the SME and micro business sectors. Andrew Johnson and Chad Griffin of FTI Read more…

Npower is to cut 900 jobs, 14 per cent of its workforce. The company blamed tough market conditions, the price cap and intense competition on fixed price tariffs. CEO Paul Coffey said the company would still make a “significant” loss for the year after slashing headcount and wage bill. He said the recent spate of Read more…

Share values for business energy supplier Yu Group doubled in early trading after the company said losses for the full year 2018 would be no worse than anticipated. The firm’s value plunged 80% in October when it notified the stock market of an accounting black hole that would lead it to post a loss. The Read more…

Third party intermediary Inspired Energy expects to post a 21% revenue increase and 22% rise in adjusted profit before tax for the full year 2018. For full year 2017, reported group revenue stood at £27.46m, adjusted profit before tax at £9.7m. In a trading update, the company said net debt is expected to be £24m, up Read more…

Ofgem will launch a review of the microbusiness energy market this year. The regulator will examine whether to put in place similar protections for the UK’s smallest firms to those afforded to households. The review, should it lead to action, will be welcomed by those that have long called for oversight of third parties. Many Read more…

Utilitywise is seeking buyers. It needs £10m to fund a new strategy and renew its £25m credit facility which expires in April. The company’s share price collapsed to around 2p on the news, giving it a market cap value of £1.7m. The future of Utilitywise, led by former Sage boss Brendan Flattery, has been the Read more…

Utility Alliance has opened another office and set up an industrial and commercial division. The TPI can now provide energy services across the business-to-business sector. Utility Alliance was set up in Hartlepool in February 2015, initially with six staff, serving the SME and mid-market. Now, with around 250 staff employed from its Hartlepool headquarters in Read more…

The Network Edge is on the tip of our tongue as we discuss 2019 data center trends, writes Rob Johnson, chief executive officer at Vertiv. For several years now, Vertiv has undertaken an interesting experiment as we head toward the new year. We have gathered many of our leading experts on the data center space Read more…

Pöyry has launched its Retail Energy Price Index to show industrial and commercial firms how market movements will impact their future energy bills. In a rapidly shifting energy landscape Pöyry has created this index to help businesses plan their future electricity and gas sourcing. The global consultancy will host the service on The Energyst’s website. Read more…

Drax has completed its £702m acquisition of gas, pumped storage and hydro assets from Scottish Power parent company Iberdrola. The deal was announced in October but faced a hurdle when the Capacity Market was suspended. Drax and Iberdrola then agreed a risk share arrangement to mitigate exposure to uncertainty about Capacity Market payments – with Read more…

Former Utilitywise director Andrew Richardson manages an energy price comparison and switching platform for small firms. For businesses that still use brokers, he suggests they ask the following questions before signing anything. A significant proportion of businesses use a broker to procure their business energy. Brokers can typically mark-up supplier base rates by up to Read more…

The proposed merger of SSE and Npower’s retail businesses has been scrapped. SSE said its board and that of Innogy’s had been unable to agree revised commercial terms. Many in the market had suggested the deal was dead after SSE flagged problems last month. SSE said it will now look at other options and potentially Read more…

Inspired Energy’s acquisition spree shows no sign of relenting. The company has conditionally agreed a £19.5m cash deal for Inprova Finance and now seeks to raise £19m via a new share placing. One of the top ten industrial and commercial third party intermediaries, Inprova Finance is a significant operator in the TPI market, with some Read more…

The energy sector accepts the transformational ‘three Ds’ of decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitisation – but suppliers are behind the curve on the latter aspect, according to a study. The Bearing Point report, which looked at 593 companies across eight countries, suggested UK suppliers in the main could benefit commercially by developing coherent digital marketing and Read more…

Public sector energy procurement platform, Energy For Good, outlines its credentials in this sponsored post. Energy For Good (EFG) is a market leading company dedicated to providing best in class energy price sourcing to public sector organisations, using an adapted and fully OJEU compliant Dynamic Purchasing System. This DPS is also fully compliant with Public Read more…

Energy from waste continues to drive Pennon profit. The company predicts income growth for years to come as demand outpaces supply. Earnings before interest, taxes, deductions and amortisation (ebitda) from its energy recovery facilities increased 29% to £66.6m according to half year results. Group ebitda increased 8% to £274m for the six months to 30 Read more…

Selkirk-based Spark Energy Supply Limited has been closed down by its parent company. It had 290,000 domestic customers. Other businesses within the Spark Group, such as Spark Business Utilities, which serves commercial customers, remain trading. The company also operates gas shipping, energy finance and home telecom subsidiary businesses. Earlier this week the company was named by Read more…

Third party intermediary Utilitywise has split out its corporate division, rebranding it as Energy Intelligence Centre – or EIC. The choice of name is interesting. Utilitywise bought industrial and commercial third party intermediary Energy Information Centre, also known as EIC, for £15.5m in 2013. The move comes as the company attempts to repair its balance Read more…