save me money on bills | Gerard Duggan

Volatile market conditions

…it’s even more important for client’s to review the market before they renew their contract.

“We are seeing as unique set of circumstances affecting the energy market. Oil prices have increased due to the instability in the Middle East. Historically electricity and oil prices are inextricably linked on the European market, an increase in one leads to rise in the other commodity.

Japan has lost a significant amount of its nuclear capacity as a consequence of the earth quake and tsunami that struck its coastline. Japan is turning to Liquid Petroleum Gas to generate the missing capacity it needs to recover; a fuel that Europe relies on to generate electricity.

The German nuclear sector has, as a precaution, shut down a number of its nuclear plants to review the cooling pumps used in the reactors. Both the German and Japanese plants are of the same generation. The reduced generation capacity has left a gap in the market causing further price pressure.”

What a customer said recently…

“We’d previously looked after our own electricity contract and its renewal. We had done a little homework before we invited Utilitrack to help us. We were delighted with the result.

Thank you very much for sorting [our renewal] – I am very pleased – could you be my accountant too and save me even more money!!”

R E Director – S T UK Ltd Stone Fabricators

If you’d like me to help your business make sure it is getting best value please call me on 0845 604 1484

Measure your usage – sounds boring but could save many £££

Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” But it’s a bit boring watching your electricity meter slowly turning. So why not install a digital electricity usage meter that displays to the nearest watt how much energy your firm is consuming? Meters aren’t expensive. You can pick up a Current Cost Envi digital display (made by British entrepreneur Martin Dix) for under £40 on eBay. Installation is non-technical and takes 30 seconds. If you input your price per kilowatt hour, it will translate the energy statistics into pound signs. The display is wireless, so you can keep it on your desk. You’ll be surprised what an impact the installation of such a device will have on consumption.

Simple answer for Simplified IT Company

“We hadn’t considered using a broker to help us purchase our energy contracts before but I met Gerard at a networking event and though I’d try his business out. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to engage the services of Utilitrack; I only needed to provide a copy of my latest gas and electricity bills. Gerard’s accounts team renewed both our gas and electricity contracts with our current provider and saved us money. As a result of engaging Utilitrack, which didn’t cost us anything, our gas bill is 19% lower and we are paying 28% less for our electricity. I’ve started recommending Gerard to my clients.”

AvecSys – IT Simplified

Have you heard the story of the happy White Horse?

“Gerard at Utilitrack helped us renew our gas contract in January 2010; at the time our supply was with Shell Gas. Utilitrack made sure our cancellation notice was served to our current supplier to ensure we weren’t rolled into a new contract or went into expensive out of contract rates. Gerard’s team tendered our contract to the open market and they had six responses including a renewal rate from our current supplier. Shell offered a better rate than we were currently paying, some 15% but British Gas more than doubled this which means we have over £1800 extra in our account.

Utilitrack were able to achieve this without any impact on our day to day business; two short meetings with Gerard, one to gather a copy of our bills and one to sign off the contract was all it took. I’d recommend you speak to Utilitrack to see what they can save you. We look forward to Gerard helping us renew our future energy contracts.”

The White Horse Pub Newnam Ave Bedford

Financial fitness at Fitness 4 Less

“When I heard that Energie had partnered with Utilitrack to make sure that I had the opportunity to benchmark my energy spend I was intrigued to learn more. I called Nick (Gerard’s business partner) at Utilitrack and with very little effort from me he got in touch with my energy suppliers and then arranged a competitive price tender across the whole of the market, including my existing supplier, to make sure I could benefit from the ‘win’ rate and not just the ‘renewal’ rate. I saved 23% on my gas bill and 36% on my electricity bill. I urge any member clubs to do the same thing!”

Andy Ingham, Manager at Fitness 4 Less, Canterbury

So can we help you today?

Shop Around

If you’ve been with your utility company for more than two years, chances are you’re paying too much. For gas, electricity and water, it’s imperative to search the market annually for the best deal. With 11,000 different tariffs and tricky termination rules, this could be a chore, so use a utility broker who can connect you with the whole of the market. Beware of those who represent one or two utility companies they may not offer the best value or best savings.

Treatment of SMEs “beyond belief”

Britain’s big energy companies are forcing as many as 250,000 small businesses to pay for their energy up to seven months in advance, it has emerged.

Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, the energy regulator, called the companies including Scottish Power, British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE Npower and SSE to a meeting in London recently to express mounting concern about the practice, which it is feared could put companies into real difficulty.

Stephen Alambritis, at the Federation of Small Businesses, estimates that about one million of Britain’s 4.7 million small and medium-sized businesses have been contacted by their energy companies in recent months and informed of tougher payment conditions in a move designed to help to shield suppliers from the impact of the growing number of companies entering insolvency.

About a quarter of those some 250,000 small businesses employing 2.5 million people, have been asked to pay an element of their bills upfront, Mr Alambritis added.

Scottish Power, E.ON and British Gas are among those to have tightened their credit conditions recently.

Nick Campbell, an energy trader at Inenco, the consultancy, estimates that UK companies are now being forced to pay up to £350 million in advance for their energy. He said that suppliers appeared to be targeting businesses by sector and that industries heavily exposed to the downturn such as manufacturing, car-making, construction and retail were particularly hard hit.

“There is less risk appetite where these businesses are concerned,” said Mr Campbell. “The vast majority of businesses in these sectors could expect to be hit by these restrictions.”

About 40,000 UK companies are expected to enter insolvency during 2009, a 62 per cent increase on 2007.

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, the lobbying organisation, said some companies in the ceramics industry had been asked to pay seven months’ worth of their energy bills upfront a trend that he described as “beyond belief” in the current environment.

The problem has intensified because credit insurers, which pay the bills of companies that are insolvent, have withdrawn from certain industries amid a surge in business failures.

David Cockshott, head of corporate sales at Npower, said that as many as 60 per cent of new customer applications were now being rejected by trade credit insurers, up from 5 per cent two years ago.

The lack of cover has prompted energy companies both to demand deposits and to seek payment of invoices in as little as five days or customers face having their supplies cut.

Mr Alambritis said he was “very concerned”. “The energy companies have started using some very aggressive tactics. They have been concerned by the high level of bankruptcies. But asking for money upfront puts businesses in an even more precarious situation.”

Is green your colour or just the colour of money?

Green builders call for £10,000 home makeover loans

Local authorities should do more to encourage Britain’s homeowners to take out loans to give their properties a ‘green makeover’, it has been suggested.

Under the latest proposals put forward by the UK Green Building Council, households would be able to take out loans of up to £10,000 to allow them to make their homes more energy efficient.

This money would then be paid back gradually through their council tax bills rather than just through lower energy bills, as had previously been suggested by the government’s recently-unveiled ‘pay-as-you-save’ scheme.

Not only would such an initiative help improve the energy efficiency of around seven million UK homes by 2020, it could also create as many as 40,000 new jobs in the green sector, supporters argue.

Welcoming the suggestions, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “The government will soon be trialling pay-as-you-save schemes in several hundred homes across the country and we will also use what we learn from these pilots in our final decision on what form the scheme will take.”

Last month, Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud joined forces with the UK Green Building Council in arguing that, by investing in making homes more energy efficient, the government will help cut the utilities bills of millions.

Thanks to Emily Thomas

Local IT firm saves 20% …

Local IT firm Applied IT Solutions Ltd appointed Utilitrack to check if their current gas and electricity suppliers were giving them the best price. Fortunately they weren’t locked into a long term agreement so set to work on reducing their bills.

Our team in Leeds successfully tendered for their contract and have been able to reduce their energy bill by over 20% …

The management of Applied IT liked having a local representative to help them assess the needs of their business very much in the spirit of the way they run their business.

Applied IT Solutions offer all the benefits of an in-house IT department but without the cost for a simple, fixed & affordable monthly fee. In short, they will not charge you every time your computers are misbehaving. The support team delivers a hassle-free service which completely takes the burden of computers and IT off your shoulders, in return for an affordable monthly fee that includes all the attention you may require.

For more information please call 01462 732020 or visit http://www.appliedit.co.uk/

Heavenly Link for Gerard…

Yesterday I had a great start to the day and was appointed by Woodside Church to review their gas and electricity spend. I look forward to reporting back to their management team once I’ve established when their contract expires. In the meantime let me let you a little about this contemporary, Bible-believing Christian church based in Bedford.

It is a large family of people of all ages, united by a love of God and are passionate about living their lives in a way that makes a difference to the people around them. The church is a community of people drawn from many different social and ethnic backgrounds, just like Bedford itself.

Woodside meet together on Sundays at 10.30am in a modern building located in the heart of the Putnoe area of Bedford. They also gather throughout the week in smaller groups meeting in homes across the town. Woodside run weekly programmes for children, young people, parents with small children and those seeking special personal help.

Everyone is welcome to be a part of the life of our church, wherever you’re from, whatever your age and whatever your background.

Woodside Church belongs to the Newfrontiers family of churches.