Challenging times for suppliers in the UK energy market

Since 1998, the UK power and gas retail market has welcomed competition and the opportunity to serve customers better: both with fair value contracts and a customer experience tailored to customer needs.

Twenty years on and we see that new entrants into the UK power and gas retail market struggle to understand the complexity of the market and how to remain on the right side of challenging and ever changing regulation.

In a recent OFGEM consultation it was observed that new suppliers are sometimes unaware of certain licence conditions and obligations that they should have understood in advance of gaining customers and underestimate the costs of compliance within the first few years of operation.

Once a Supplier begins to take on a significant number of customers the cracks start to appear and a lack of a robust compliance framework leads to OFGEM issuing Provisional Orders for improvement, preventing further customer acquisition and ultimately revoking Supply Licences.

For a Supplier to be identified as a poor performer, i.e. placed low on the Supplier Rankings published by Citizen Advice Bureau, erodes consumer confidence and trust. Once a Supplier’s reputation is damaged the consequences are not only felt in the marketplace, but also more dramatically within the Suppliers’ own team. Morale drops, teams are realigned to respond to Regulator requests and the cost to address Improvement Orders can significantly damage business performance.

How we can help new suppliers face the challenges of the UK energy markets

By engaging early with consultants from Andrew J Hancock Ltd we are able to minimise the likelihood of Regulatory action. We have decades of operational and Regulatory experience, which enables us to provide Regulatory Compliance services tailored to your needs;

• we conduct an audit of all compliance areas within the first 12 months of start-up identify early any issues, regarding customer service obligations

And

• work with the supplier to identify and implement corrective actions appropriate for sustainable compliance, which both benefit their business and the needs of their customers

Challenging times don’t need to be challenging when building a successful business

We engage with Suppliers by interpreting and clearly explaining their regulatory obligations. In this way we complement their existing teams so that Suppliers can rest assured that regulatory compliance is being addressed appropriately.

We provide consultancy services that play a valuable role in educating Suppliers, ensuring that they fully understand their obligations and the investment they must make in creating a compliance framework for future monitoring, engagement and portfolio growth.

AUTHOR - Andrew J Hancock