The expected twice-yearly round of energy supply contract changeovers helped switching activity increase to another recent high in April. There were 199,000 changes of supplier (CoS) last month – a 12 per cent increase compared to the month before and 55 per cent more than April 2022.
April’s CoS figure means switching activity among households and SMEs in GB is now almost comparable to figures from 10 years ago when smaller suppliers started to make gains from the former Big Six.
Switching volumes increase in April and October every year as fixed contracts come to an end and account holders shop around for better deals. The government’s Energy Price Guarantee – covering the difference between how much suppliers pay for energy on the wholesale market and sell energy to domestic users for – means households have had little incentive to change supplier for the time being. However, business users are clearly seeing the value in lower prices or better customer experience by changing providers; this has driven recent increases in CoS activity.
April 2023 now stands as the month with the most switches since November 2021 when dozens of suppliers went out of business and the domestic energy crisis grabbed national headlines.
There have been 646,000 completed CoS in 2023 so far.
Contrary to the trend of the past few months, switching between Large suppliers decreased in April while CoS between Other suppliers increased significantly. However, Large suppliers still acquired more customers from Other suppliers than they lost.
- Large to Large switches reached 102,000 – three per cent less than March 2023 and 51 per cent of April 2023’s total CoS completed,
- Large to Other switches totalled 38,000 – 19 per cent more than March 2023 and 19 per cent of April 2023’s total CoS completed,
- Other to Large switches reached 39,000 – 22 per cent more than March 2023 and 20 per cent of April 2023’s total CoS completed,
- And Other to Other switches landed at 20,000 – 131 per cent more than March 2023 and 10 per cent of April 2023’s total CoS completed.
For more information on CoS figures, or to find out how your organisation can access the CoS data we hold and provide for the energy market, contact [email protected].
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NOTES:
The above figures relate to electricity CoS in Great Britain only.
We do not include CoS from 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, including after a contract expired.
All data is provided by EMPRIS.
Due to the introduction of the Central Switching Service in July 2022, ElectraLink is no longer able to provide data on CoS started.
ElectraLink has been granted the governance protections to hold, transfer and analyse CoS and other data.