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Energy solutions for large businesses
Industries that use a lot of energy or manage large property portfolios have plenty of options for buying electricity and gas.
In this article, we’ll give you a quick overview of the most popular solutions and products large businesses use, with links to detailed guides on each topic. We cover:
Energy procurement for large businesses
Here, we’ll break down three of the most popular energy supply contracts that large business procurement teams rely on to secure the best energy deals.
Multi-site contracts
Businesses with a large portfolio of properties must manage the supply contracts of individual MPANs and MPRNs associated with each electricity and gas connection.
Business energy suppliers offer multi-site contracts to reduce the burden of contracting for each supply point separately.
Multi-site energy contracts are ideal for large businesses, such as hotels, which have many properties with similar energy requirements.
Flexible tariffs
Large businesses can enter simple fixed contracts used by small business energy customers to secure future energy prices, but they also have access to a wide range of flexible tariff options.
A popular example is a pass-through tariff that separates commodity costs from DUoS and TNUoS distribution charges, enabling businesses to fix different elements of electricity prices and execute bespoke energy procurement strategies.
Energy suppliers offer live trading platforms to large business customers where blocks of gas and electricity can be purchased directly from the wholesale energy market.
Export tariffs
Large businesses may have the resources and space available to invest in generating their own electricity by installing arrays of solar panels on the flat roofs of commercial buildings.
Investing in green business energy generation helps mitigate price risk on future electricity costs while reducing carbon emissions.
Excess electricity generated by solar panels can be sold back to the local electricity distribution network operator under a Smart Export Guarantee tariff.
Optimising large business energy consumption
In this section, we’ll dive into the top three strategies that large businesses use to cut energy costs.
Time-based energy optimisation
Large businesses can lower their business electricity bills by adjusting when they use energy.
Many large business energy tariffs offer lower rates during evenings and weekends, allowing companies to schedule non-essential processes or heavy equipment use during off-peak times to save on costs.
For more information, read our guide to multi-rate business energy tariffs.
Managing import capacity
Energy-intensive commercial properties pay capacity charges to guarantee the Maximum Import Capacity (MIC) of each business electricity connection.
Large businesses can reduce their charges by actively managing the capacity of each of their connections, as follows:
- Increase the Maximum Import Capacity for any sites incurring excess capacity charges.
- Release the Maximum Import Capacity for any sites where power requirements have decreased.
Learn more in our full guide to maximum demand charges.
Energy efficiency audits
Regular business energy audits help large businesses identify inefficient operations and equipment that waste electricity and gas.
These audits offer actionable recommendations to reduce unnecessary energy consumption and improve business energy efficiency.
Some large organisations are required to have periodic energy audits under the Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme.
Long-term energy efficiency improvements can be made by implementing an Energy Management System.
Metering for large businesses
Optimising large business energy usage and procurement requires granular, site-by-site data on electricity and gas consumption using business energy monitoring software.
Large businesses typically use a combination of the three types of energy meters below to provide automatic meter readings every thirty minutes across all their properties.
Half-hourly meters
Commercial sites with a maximum demand exceeding 100kW must have half-hourly electricity meters and appoint a Meter Operator (MOP).
Advanced gas meters
Advanced business gas meters automatically transmit meter readings for commercial gas connections that consume more than 293,000 kWh annually.
Smart energy meters
Locations with lower energy demand in a property portfolio use smart business energy meters configured for automatic half-hourly readings.
Pricing insights for large businesses
Procurement teams in large businesses need to make timely decisions on fixing energy costs as contracts near renewal.
Keeping up with energy market trends is crucial to protect against rising prices. Our energy experts provide weekly updates on business electricity prices and commercial gas rates to support this.
We recommend reviewing these updates regularly to understand how shifts in the wholesale market impact long-term fixed rates available to businesses.