Business electricity suppliers
If you are looking for a better deal on your business energy rates then you need to know which utilities offer business electricity and how you can compare prices. It's much easier to compare the whole of the market to get the best domestic energy prices but it requires a little more work to get the cheapest deal for the commercial sector.
Whether you are in a retail, office of manufacturing premises the same methods can be used to find a better deal and get the best business electricity prices based on your needs. Whereas in the domestic energy market everyone pays the same price based on the region they live in no matter how much electricity they consume. Larger commercial organisations are able to negotiate a lower unit price based on their consumption, the more you use the less you pay.
If you are a smaller entity such as a medium enterprise, small business or micro business you are more likely to need to use a price comparison service or perhaps a use the services of an energy broker.
Energy price comparison sites allow to more easily compare the rates across several energy suppliers at once. It's the best way to get a quick idea of how much you could potentially save. You can save around 40% compared to a standard out of contract deemed rate but your saving would typically be lower compared to your current in contract rate.
It may be worth considering the services of an energy broker if you are a heavier electricity user. Brokers can negotiate deals on your behalf but will charge a commission which is usually in the form of a small increase in the unit rate you pay on your energy bill.
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UK business electricity suppliers
Below is a list of business electricity suppliers along with the quoted per unit kWh rate in pence and the daily standing charge in pence. The prices were gathered from business energy comparison websites Love Energy Savings, Energylinx for business and Business Energy Quotes along with a direct price quotation from Bulb Business Energy.
No figures were provided for BES Utilities as quotes were not obtainable at the time due to technical errors with their system. All quotes were based on an typical small business in the eastern region seeking a quote for electricity.
The Bulb Business Energy quote was taken directly from Bulb online where the cheapest available tariff was used in the table of results. Haven Power's quote was also obtained online where you can get an instant quote if you are a small or micro business with an annual electricity usage of less than 50,000 kWh.
Some of the quotes for the same supplier were found across multiple business comparison sites, in each case the cheapest quote was used.
| Supplier | Electricity pence per KWh | Electricity daily standing charge |
| BES Utilities | - | - |
| British Gas | 14.970 | 31.770 |
| British Gas Lite | 14.590 | 25.100 |
| Bulb Business Energy | 12.510 | 27.397 |
| Clear Business Energy | 15.020 | 30.000 |
| D-Energi | 14.410 | 23.820 |
| E.ON (incorporates nPower) | 15.140 | 31.000 |
| EDF Energy | 16.100 | 25.000 |
| Engie | 15.930 | 23.640 |
| Gazprom Energy | 15.190 | 37.060 |
| Good Energy | 15.100 | 33.930 |
| Gulf Gas and Power | 16.540 | 36.740 |
| Haven Power | 13.22 | 26.00 |
| Hudson Energy | 15.480 | 26.360 |
| Octopus Energy | 15.310 | 25.440 |
| Opus Energy | 16.660 | 26.000 |
| PFP Energy | 15.680 | 14.050 |
| Pozitive Energy | 14.610 | 24.840 |
| Scottish Power | 14.850 | 26.560 |
| Shell Energy | 14.968 | 36.230 |
| SmartestEnergy Business | 14.720 | 26.010 |
| SSE | 15.390 | 30.130 |
| Total Gas and Power | 15.460 | 31.090 |
| Utilita | 13.760 | 17.920 |
| Whoop Energy | 14.020 | 25.740 |
| Yorkshire Gas and Power | 14.540 | 31.140 |
| Yu Energy | 15.750 | 27.040 |
The rates quoted above whilst accurate at the time of the quote are illustrative more than anything. They do however show the difference in prices charged for commercial energy across the sector. I'd recommend that as a business you spend time on finding a supplier that will offer a good deal based on your energy requirements.
How to compare business electricity suppliers online
Whilst we have given you an idea on rates charged by many of the utilities that supply business electricity it did mean that we had to use a combination of online business electricity supplier comparison services that provide upfront pricing quotes and visiting suppliers websites.
Unless you are a large commercial energy user most micro, small and medium sized businesses would compare suppliers online or engage the services of a trusted broker who are upfront about their fees.
Your custom is valuable to the energy suppliers so make sure you are getting the best value. Use the online comparison tools that will give you instant quotes so you have an idea of what your energy will be for the year or more ahead.
Very few of the business energy comparison services give up front prices which is important to be able to see costs in print to make it easy to compare like for like. Most of the other energy comparison services for businesses require you to speak to a broker or consultant before seeing any prices where you don't know upfront which energy companies they are comparing for you.
These are the comparison sites I used for this article and have used in the past which together will give you a good overall view of prices across the market.
- Love Energy Saving
- Business Energy Quotes
- Go Compare
Best business electricity supplier comparison service
Getting a good deal on business energy is not as straightforward as recommending the use of a specific service due to the variation in energy demands of business. In the residential energy sector the customer is more homogeneous with energy usage remaining in a relatively narrow band across household.
British businesses can vary greatly in the amount of electricity they consume as you could have anything from a seasonal shop run from a small premises that may only use 5,000 kWh a year to Network Rail who use about 60,000,000 kWh who currently get their electricity from EDF.
The greater the amount of electricity you consume the lower the unit cost of your energy will be. Most businesses however will not have the buying power to negotiate a cheaper deal directly and would useaan online comparison tool or use the services of an energy broker to get the best price.
You also need to take into account how much effort you as a business are willing to put into comparing prices.
It does require more work compared to comparing home energy so to give you the best chance of getting the lowest price you should compare using Love Energy Savings, Business Energy Quotes and Go Compare. Each service will give you and up front price and you will be covering more suppliers by using three separate services.
Comparing prices between services does take a bit of work as the comparison sites do not present the prices in the same way. Some include VAT, some do not for example. You can however see the kWh unit rate and the daily standing charge which is a good way to gauge like for like cost.
At Safe Energy Switch we do recommend the Love Energy Savings service which is why we partnered with them. They have switched and saved over 245,000 UK businesses a typical saving of £955 and provide a trusted service having a Trustpilot rating of 4.7 out of 5.
Cheap business electricity suppliers
Based on our business electricity comparison we were able to get direct quotes from most of the UK business energy suppliers. Our criteria was a small business in the eastern region of England with an annual energy consumption of 20,000 kWh of electricity.
Cost varies depending on your usage, your energy region, type of meter and various other factors so you need to get a quote to get a more accurate idea if switching to a particular supplier is going to save you money and reduce your energy bill.
Business electricity prices also change regularly so a supplier that may be offering a cheaper deal this month may not be the cheapest next month. You also need to take into account how long you want your contract to last and if you are looking for a fixed price deal or variable rate.
However based on our quote acquired in November 2020 the current best business electric rates are from Bulb, Haven Power, PFP Energy and Utilita. They all have relatively low unit rates and standing charges with Bulb with the lowest cost per kWh charge at 12.51 pence and PFP Energy having the lowest daily standing charge for electricity at 14.05p per day.
Hourly rates and standing charges are usually a balance, where kWh rates are higher the standing charge is usually lower and vice versa. The more electricity your premises consumes, tariffs with a lower cost per kWh unit charge will become more attractive. Conversely lower energy consumers, especially seasonal businesses would find a better deal with lower standing or even a no standing charge tariff.