Volatile energy prices and the growing burden of new legislation on energy efficiency and carbon emissions are affecting all organisations.
To be a leading business and retain competitive advantage In today’s market, there are some important questions facing every organisation:
- Are you taking advantage of volatile energy prices?
- Do you know how much energy you are wasting today?
- Are you certain you're compliant with all new legislation?
If the answer’s ‘No’ to any of these questions, we can help.
The British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation has formed a partnership with the UK’s leading energy consultancy, Inenco, to bring a series of benefits and services to participating businesses. The BG Energy Services Agreement provides group purchasing power and savings based on 8 key initiatives listed on the right.
Energy Purchasing: the SMEs' problem
Purchasing an energy contract is risky and expensive. For the medium to small energy consumer the usual method is to buy the annual energy requirement in one go. This is a highly speculative enterprise: could be better than average, odds are it is likely to be worse. One way to improve control over your purchase is to move to the wholesale market where multiple purchases are available. The problem is that this market is closed to all but the largest consumers. Whilst many energy purchasers do group consumers together in order to make larger portfolios they are still very reluctant to take on consumers below a certain threshold.
The Solution
British Glass has now developed an arrangement with Inenco which gives small to medium sized businesses the option to be part of notionally larger companies. The resulting basket arrangement is traded as if it were one very large business. This method of trading also has the endorsement of the CBI because it helps to remove competitive distortion from the market. Until recently even under Inenco’s normal terms, businesses that had a combined electricity and gas spend of less than £300,000 per annum would not normally have qualified for such access to the wholesale market. However as a member of the BG Energy Services Agreement there is no lower level. The Wholesale Power Purchasing Service is therefore directly extended to you. Furthermore you do not have to be a BG member to benefit from this agreement.
For more details on Inenco and how their energy purchase scheme works please click here.
Timelines & Coping with Existing Contracts
Energy from the wholesale market is, in the main, bought in advance of the required delivery date. For instance Inenco, which manages energy to the value of £3 billion, is currently trading energy for delivery on October 1st 2008 and 2009. Where the dates within your existing contract/s differ, Inenco can bring them into line via, for instance, short term and bridging contracts. The sooner a consumer can commit to such a system the better Inenco can prepare the ground for his energy demand and take advantage of market volatility thus giving better returns.
Further Information
If you are interested in finding out more about the scheme please complete the brief Inenco data sheet.
Send or fax it to the Inenco address given on it. Alternatively you may contact either:
Inenco: Alan Robey or Lorraine Oldham; 01253785001
British Glass: John Stockdale; 0114 2901850
