According to ‘revelatory’ data from Comparethemarket, the most popular energy tariffs in the domestic market include names “You might not have heard about”.
They report that:
- Extra Energy attracted fully 36.28% of domestic energy switches in October
- First Utility 11.65%
- E.ON 10.82%
- nPower 9.18%
- Sainsbury’s Energy 7.44%
Whilst the biggest losses were felt by:
- nPower 18.99%
- E.ON 18.08%
- Scottish Power 16.91%
- British Gas 11.93%
- SSE 11.73%
Unsurprising therefore the movement from the Big 6 to smaller energy suppliers dwarfed the number moving in the opposite direction with 58.36% moving to new entrants whilst just 3.35% made the switch to the traditional big suppliers.
In addition the comparison website reported that their sample of switches showed distinct regional variations with the North West the heaviest switchers at 13.67% whilst just 5.49% switched in the North East.
These revelations are interesting. Not least because the apparent ‘novelty’ of non Big 6 energy suppliers is something that has characterized the business energy market for many years.
With more than 25 energy suppliers to choose from for business energy, the Big 6 are simply dwarfed in comparison to the options available elsewhere and savvy business switchers have long known that there are very credible and successful alternatives beyond the traditionally dominant players.
That said, unlike in the domestic energy market, the awareness of the ability to switch is significantly lower in the business energy market. With a shocking 70%+ of businesses not realising or valuing the option of switching to an alternative deal.
In addition despite the relatively small savings available to domestic energy customers on successive switches the very nature of the business energy market, where it is priced far more closely to the prevailing wholesale energy market, means the savings available are significantly greater.
And for business energy customers the most savvy regions are Eastern England (13.13%), the East Midlands (9.7%) and Southern England (9.48%) whilst the least likely to switch are Merseyside and North Wales (3.96%), South Wales (3.22%) and Northern Scotland (2.39%).
To find out more about the range of suppliers on offer in the business energy market visit our dedicated supplier pages here and to understand the key differences with the domestic energy market and why the UK’s savviest businesses are engaging in the energy market see our guide to the markets here.