Energy Best Deal launched by Ofgem
October 29, 2008 at 1:53 am
A campaign which aims to help vulnerable customers was launched by the energy regulator, Ofgem, earlier this week. The Energy Best Deal will provide low income customers with information about how to get the best possible energy deal, and it will help customers who are currently finding it difficult to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of energy. Such consumers will be offered face-to-face advice from employees of Citizens Advice, Housing Associations, Credit Unions and several other large organisations. These employees are set to receive full training from those in charge of the new campaign.
Ofgem devised this scheme in association with Citizens Advice, and the campaign has received funding from the Department for Energy and Climate Change. The Director of Public Policy at Citizens Advice, Teresa Perchard, believes that the Citizens Advice Bureau has a responsibility to provide customers with adequate information regarding fuel bills. She also spoke of the 7% rise in enquiries directed towards the bureau seen over the past year.
Furthermore, Chris Eagle, the commercial manager at energychoices.co.uk, believes that the campaign will save individuals hundreds of pounds in the long-term. Eagle also thinks that providing customers with face-to-face advice is a “big step forward” in the world of energy.
Many vulnerable consumers, including pensioners, the unemployed, and those on a low income, tend to avoid switching to potentially cheaper energy suppliers. Research has shown that many such customers are simply unaware that they could save such a large amount of money. It is therefore hoped that this new campaign will help raise awareness and ease the financial woes of the most vulnerable groups in society.
Energy industry failing on customer satisfaction
October 15, 2008 at 3:49 am
It’s bad enough having to pay the hefty prices charged by our energy suppliers but it seems that as well as feeling “ripped off”, we are not at all happy with the customer service provided by these companies.
According to research carried out by Which?, gas and electricity companies are the worst performing of all industries and worst of all is Npower. Five out of six of the major providers scored under 50% for customer satisfaction but Npower achieved only a dismal 32% for factors such as value for money, billing, and customer support over the phone or online. Best of the bunch was Utility Warehouse which scored 72%. For full results of the survey have a look at the Which? Website.
Twenty percent of survey participants had had problems with their supplier in the last twelve months, including the age-old gripe of no-one turning up to read the meter, bills either not being received or being incorrect, and then not being able to resolve issues without a great deal of hassle. 67% of people asked had failed to receive advice on saving money from their suppliers but the good news is that 90% of those who had switched supplier in the last year had found it quick and easy to do so, a heartening finding when you consider that savings of up to £250 can be made by swapping.
Which? Editor, Jess Ross, is shocked by the findings, saying that the fact that these companies are providing an essential service should not be an excuse to provide poor value for money.
Could wave power make waves in Scotland?
October 10, 2008 at 2:06 am
Made in Scotland, but used miles away off the coast of Portugal, this month sees the switching on of the world’s leading wave-powered generator, which could end up paving the way for the future of renewable energy.
It’s taken the Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power over ten years to see the project through, and looking at the huge turbines you’d be fooled into thinking you were watching something from Doctor Who. But the new 140-metre long tubes off the coast of Portugal are anything but science fiction.
It’s the launch of the first commercial-scale wave power station in the world. The devices are huge, red snake-like tubes, which sit on the water’s surface three miles off the north-western Portuguese coastal town of Aguçadoura. By harnessing the force of the strong Atlantic current, the snakes generate completely clean and renewable electricity capable of powering up to 1,000 homes.
Portugal is rightly boasting about its £7 million government investment into the first phase of the project and are hoping to lead the way for the rest of Europe, but the question has now risen: why didn’t the snake stay in Scotland?
A chief scientist from Greenpeace in the UK has called for the energy secretary John Hutton to start asking questions as to why this sort of investment isn’t being done under our Labour government and why the work is leaving our shores for countries not even in the G8 such as Portugal. The well-regarded scientist, Mr Doug Parr, believes there has been “constant neglect of renewables”. This seems like the ultimate insult to the campaign for greener energy in the UK.
TV campaign to help us reduce fuel bills
October 1, 2008 at 10:52 am
British screenwriter and film director, Shane Meadows, has had his work compared to Mike Leigh “with a post-modern twist”, but he is turning his attention at the moment to climate change.
You may have noticed the rather amusing television adverts that have been screened in the last few days showing a father attempting to get his family to use less energy and so save him money as well as reduce their carbon footprint. Most parents will be able to sympathise with the beleaguered father who comes home to find the television playing to “the invisible man”, the lights on “like Blackpool Illuminations” and the central heating on full blast, as yet another high energy bill plops on to the doormat. It is Shane Meadows, director of This is England, who is the brain behind the campaign, spearheaded by Defra.
Meadows has been involved in the past with television advertising for Asda but was particularly keen to play a part in this campaign which could actually change the way we live. The campaign is part of the government’s “Act on CO2” initiative which was launched last week in a bid to get people to take more responsibility for the environment whilst reducing their bills, at a time when gas prices have risen by 52% in just nine months and electricity by 28%.
The campaign’s advice line has received a staggering number of calls in the last week from consumers seeking to save money, so it looks as though the message may be getting through at last.
