Energy & Utilities Insights
Insights
Actionable insights for the sector's most pressing topics
Challenges like rising debt, sustainability targets, and regulatory reforms are driving suppliers to fundamentally rethink how they operate. At the same time, these shifts present opportunities to differentiate, drive innovation, and enhance customer service. As organisations attempt to balance financial performance with compliance and customer satisfaction, staying ahead of competitors is crucial.
Leveraging the deep expertise of our industry specialists, we help energy and utilities providers to tackle these challenges, and capitalise on opportunities shaping the future of the sector.
INSIGHTS
Energy & Utilities
Assessing leadership capability to drive excellence in customer operations
Energy and Utilities is undergoing significant change. With system migrations, large-scale restructures, and rapid growth, suppliers face a complex landscape that requires strong leadership to navigate – but how do you measure this strength?
Energy debt hits record £3.8bn, as Ofgem propose initiatives to raise standards
Energy debt has reached a new high of £3.8bn as of Q3-24, up £134m from the previous quarter, and £0.9bn over the past year. Alarmingly, £2.9bn (75%) of this debt remains without any repayment arrangement in place, with 2m customers in this bracket. Total debt has almost tripled since 2020, and the volume of customers without repayment arrangements is up 700k (55%) in the same period.
Suppliers can still hit smart targets, but installation is only half the battle
Q3-24 saw 700k smart meter installs, a ~3% rise, but this pace won’t meet the 74.5% target by Dec-25. Another 5m installs are needed, alongside addressing the 3.7m meters still operating in traditional mode. These persistent issues risk higher service costs and frustrated customers, while competitors are already capitalising on real-time data for personalised tariffs and stronger engagement. Here, we share practical steps to help address this dual challenge.
Keeping revenue leakage below 1% to stay competitive, and save ~£100m
Keeping revenue leakage below 1% is no longer just a benchmark for top performers, it’s essential for staying competitive. In this article, we explore what sets high performers apart, showing how the right mix of insight, controls and operational execution can mitigate high-value losses, and deliver significant performance gains. At BFY, we’ve worked with leading suppliers on solving their revenue leakage problems, leading to savings of over £100m per year in some cases.
Price Cap at £1,738 – stable bills, but customer support remains critical
Ofgem have today (22 Nov) announced a £21 (1%) increase in the energy Price Cap, rising to £1,738 from January 2025. This increase won’t significantly impact bills, but affordability challenges continue, as Ofgem and the government consider options to address the underlying issues.
Tailoring service for prepay is more critical than ever this winter
Demand from prepayment customers is expected to rise by 50% in winter, and with affordability challenges at unprecedented levels, bespoke service is needed more than ever. We look at what's needed to address the immediate impact here, laying the foundations for a sustainable, long-term approach.
Energy bills to rise ~£800m after Winter Fuel Payment cut
Analysis from BFY Group shows the ~10m customers losing their Winter Fuel Payment will pay an additional ~£800m in energy bills this winter vs last.
Creating a winning business readiness plan for MHHS
Ofgem’s deadline for Market-wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS) implementation is expected to be pushed back again, from December 2026 to May 2027. Given this is the most fundamental change to the electricity market since privatisation, the revised implementation timeline provides suppliers with a new opportunity to nail their readiness plan.
Building a customer-centric leadership culture to transform service
The Energy and Utilities sector is evolving significantly - many are delivering system migrations, large scale restructures, and experiencing rapid growth. Universal in the success of navigating this, is the ability for operational leaders to translate these strategic changes, and land them successfully with those people closest to the customer.
Domestic customer switching jumps to highest level since energy crisis
290k domestic customers switched energy supplier in September - the most since before the energy crisis.
Dynamic tariffs saved £150 on electricity for typical customers in last 12 months
‘Typical’ customers would have saved £150 in the last 12 months on a dynamic time-of-use electricity tariff – but will need to be able to shift their consumption to achieve the same in 2025.
Realising Ofgem's vision for a leading customer-centric Energy sector
Ofgem's customer service ambition makes it clear that today's service standards aren't deemed acceptable, with rising bills and record debt levels only amplifying these calls for change. It represents a new opportunity for suppliers to build a leading culture for customer-centricity, as we show here.
Energy & Utilities
Meet the Team
Ian Barker
Managing Partner
Ian shapes the BFY vision and inspires our team to bring it to life, while remaining central to complex client engagements in Strategy, Commercial, and Operations.
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Rachel Littlewood
Director
Rachel leads our Financial Optimisation work streams, working with leaders to improve profitability & cashflow
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Tom Bromwich
Director
Tom leads client engagements with a particular focus on commercial strategy, pricing, customer acquisition and retention.
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Kelly Payne
Director
Kelly helps clients achieve operational excellence to improve customer outcomes, employee engagement, and optimising cost to serve.
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Kevin Scott
Director
Kevin leads client engagements with a laser focus on empowering clients to navigate large-scale events and market challenges.
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Our Impact
Strategic analysis identifies ~£103m in opportunities for energy retailer
We delivered strategic analysis for a large energy retailer, identifying up to ~£103m in incremental revenue opportunities, through a comprehensive Market Scan Analysis and Sales Channel Maturity Assessment.
Cash recovery initiatives deliver ~£275m benefit for large Energy supplier
Our debt team supported a large Energy supplier with recovering their cash position, achieving a total benefit of ~£275m through collaborative initiatives.
£4.5m in Bad Debt benefits for large energy retailer
We helped a large energy retailer to generate immediate in-year debt benefits through tactical interventions. Our programme delivered ~£4.5m in Bad Debt benefit and ~£8.5m in cash collection, all while maintaining customer and productivity measures within the operation.
Large energy supplier avoids ~£7.5m in complaints costs
We supported a large energy supplier with a transformation programme, looking at how they can manage their complaints inflow and address the growing backlog. The programme transformed their complaints capability and resulted in ~£7.5m in cost avoidance.
Collections improvements deliver ~£5m cash for Water retailer
We supported a B2B Water retailer with a series of collections improvements, achieving a cash uplift of ~£5m in five months.
Tactical debt improvements deliver ~£7m cash for large Energy retailer
A large Energy retailer was facing significant challenges with customer debt, requiring improvements to their collections processes to mitigate this. Their total debt was ~£100m at the time of engaging BFY, with communication gaps present across the customer debt journey.
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