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Energy supplier switching in Great Britain almost doubled compared to last year and reached another high in August since activity collapsed in late 2021.

With a one percent increase in changes of supplier (CoS) between last month and the month before, 216,000 switches were recorded in August 2023 – an increase of 98 percent compared to August 2022.

CoS activity spiked last month after the Ofgem price cap dropped in July and suppliers made more deals available on the market. However, many deals are for existing customers only or are above the current price cap rate, and all have high exit fees.

At the end of August, Ofgem announced the price cap for Q4 2023 would drop again despite a change in suppliers’ profit allowance.

There have been 1.395mn CoS completed so far this year compared to 838,000 in the same period last year.

In terms of CoS types, switches between and to Large suppliers ticked up in August while Other suppliers lost out.

  • Large to Large switches reached 121,000 – six percent more than July 2023 and 56 percent of August 2023’s total CoS completed,
  • Large to Other switches totalled 47,000 – seven percent less than July 2023 and 22 percent of August 2023’s total CoS completed,
  • Other to Large switches reached 43,000 – three percent more than July 2023 and 16 percent of August 2023’s total CoS completed,
  • And Other to Other switches landed at 14,000 – 10 percent less than July 2023 and six percent of August 2023’s total CoS completed.

Chart showing switches completed by type until August 2023 with a large drop in line graphs at Nov 2021

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.