Last week’s headlines, aside from a crescendo of insult trading in the House of Commons and a review of Downing Street knees ups, were dominated by oil and gas prices which have soared and are set to hit consumers and business in the pocket.
While the media frenzy around Partygate and Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure as head of the CPS keeps the social media world happily fuelled, back in the real world a cost of living crisis looms for voters and the government will be acutely aware of that, as well as the need to keep the economy moving in a sustained recovery as we haul ourselves away from the pandemic and associated business interruption.
As the UK adjusts its energy price cap, households face an average rise of £700 per year and will have an even closer eye on their consumption and carbon footprint, and so to in the commercial marketplace. And the problem isn’t about to go away any time soon. While the crisis is worldwide there have been a number of factors which have created a perfect storm in the European Energy Market. Prices are increasing naturally as demand soars around the world while post Covid economies get back to business and markets compete. Add to that the fact that long winters in Europe have pushed the prices up and the phasing out of coal supply, as well as a poor year for wind production, has driven up the prices further.
The result of all this is that wholesale prices have increased by around 250 per cent since the start of the year and BP has just announced its highest profit in eight years, prompting calls for a windfall tax. Meanwhile smaller energy companies have gone by the wayside and more are likely to follow.
There has never been a more important time to take a closer look at your energy consumption.
Since April 2000, commercial property owners and landlords are no longer allowed to let properties which have an Energy Performance Certificate rating below E, so any business planning to let a property at level F or G have work to do to improve their rating, or try to register an exemption. There are plenty of ways of reducing your carbon footprint, including more energy efficient lighting, improved heating and ventilation systems and programmable thermostats.
But, as always, knowledge is power…and that’s where we at Enerlytic come in.
Our platform, Advanced Reporting & Analytics, is available to make it easier for you to control energy budgets and reduce your carbon footprint. We do this by using a cost and consumption tracker, and then by giving insight and rich analysis to our customers, by providing consumption data and interrogation to analyse patterns, anomalies and trends. We offer a live budgeting tool and a risk management tool and we keep clients informed with the very latest regulatory and market news, with 24 hour online support.
One thing the rocketing fuel prices have reminded us, is that business needs to be well informed, dynamically focused and nimble in movement.
The squeeze is on but reducing your energy waste will make it a whole lot more comfortable.
