Change of Supplier (CoS) data published today from the Energy Market Data Hub (EMDH) shows a potential sign of recovery for the UK accompanying the gradual easing of COVID-19 lockdown measures.
Switching data from June 2020 confirms that 470,000 switches were completed. This figure marks both a year-on-year and month-on-month increase in switches completed – six percent more than June 2019 and just under eight percent more than May 2020.
CoS started in June also indicate a recovery in switching behaviour recording month-on-month and year-on-year increases. There were 631,000 switches started in June 2020, 14 percent more than June 2019 and 24 percent more than May 2020.
The causes for the recovery in switches completed and started is unclear. We speculate there could be two main causes. Initially, as the lockdown eases and people return to work from furlough arrangements, engagement with utilities may become more of a priority as life returns to normal. Alternatively, as suppliers manage a backlog of requests following a challenging time during the lockdown, there might be greater emphasis on processing switch requests.
In terms of switching types, switches to challengers from the Big Six and other challengers went up compared to the same time last year. The Big Six, however, saw a decrease in CoS amongst their own and from challenger brands.
- Big Six to Big Six switches reached 103,000 – 13 percent less than June 2019 and 22 percent of June 2020’s total switches completed,
- Big Six to challenger switches dived to 149,000 – 19 percent more than June 2019 and 40 percent of June 2020’s total switches completed,
- Challenger to Big Six switches landed at 60,000 – 13 percent less than June 2019 and 13 percent of June 2020’s total switches completed,
- And challenger to challenger switches reached 115,000 – 21 percent more than June 2019 and 25 percent of June 2020’s total switches completed.
For more information on changes of supplier figures, contact Ian Scougal at [email protected] or Paul Linnane at [email protected]
This month’s hot topic…
Last month, we asked, “…will CoS increase as the economy gradually restarts or will the continued effects of COVID-19 cause continued drops in consumers engaging with energy suppliers?”
June showed the potential for a return to high levels of customer engagement with the energy market. However, this recovery could also be due to resumption of normal workflows within suppliers’ organisations. We will leave it for the next month to assess if activity is on the up for good, but our question to you is: do you think June saw an increase in switches due to customer engagement or because of suppliers gains in overcoming a switching requests backlog? Tell us what you think on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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NOTES:
The above figures relate to electricity switching in Great Britain only.
We do not include CoS from Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) processes or trade sales in our monthly CoS reporting. We account for only voluntary switches, or instances where the customer made an active decision and took action to change supplier.
Switches started refers to the number of valid switches started, also known as CoS raised.
All data is provided by ElectraLink’s Energy Market Insights (EMI) from the EMDH.
ElectraLink has been granted the governance protections to hold, transfer and analyse CoS and other data.