How Businesses Can Tackle The Energy Crisis

While households face a huge 80% rise in energy bills as the price cap jumps from £1,971 to £3,549, sadly businesses are not protected by the price cap and therefore do not have a limit on business tariffs. 

 

With businesses facing bills of four times higher than current rates, Campaigners including The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) are calling on the government to include businesses in the cap. 

 

The combination of supply chain issues and the war in Ukraine has pushed up raw material and energy costs, reducing both business and consumer confidence leading to woes of a recession looming. 

 

 

 

* Negotiate a cost-effective supply energy contract and aim to avoid the trap whereby a contract ends and are subsequently rolled over to a costly variable rate tariff 

* Review contract conditions such as non-commodity costs, also known as third party costs', these costs do not relate to electricity (the commodity itself) and with them rising they can account to up to 60% of electricity bills.  There is the potential to make thousands of pounds of savings each year through negotiating fixed or pass-through terms and taking advantage of energy policy incentives and subsidies available to your business 

* Energy Audit to help identify where energy is being wasted and where savings could be made.  Create an Energy conservation policy 

* Conserve Energy by introducing energy-saving measures and on-site generation such as air source heat pumps,  solar PV, LED lighting and combined heat & power or systems which switch off automatically when not required 

* Budget and plan in advance for the rise in energy costs by preparing a forecast profit and loss looking at turnover vs costs to identify cost savings. 

* Review Capital Allowances to help fund renewable energy and energy conservation projects