Don’t Panic

Only a relatively small number of Torse Clients will (at this time) be significantly affected by the initial stages of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. For the majority it should only mean more ‘Government Red Tape’, sorry, I mean paperwork.

For most of our larger clients, there will be a requirement to be a FULL PARTICIPANT in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme commencing April 2010. Torse will be contacting those clients who we are not already in discussion with about the practicalities.

Torse to Provide Information Disclosure for Clients

For those Clients with (simplistically) less than 6GWhs per annum consumption and at least one Half-Hourly settled meter,Torse will be able to submit an Information Disclosure Report to the CRC on-line Registry or provide clients with the information required, for clients to submit themselves. We shall be providing more relevant information in due course.

What is the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme?

At present this scheme is intended to support the Government’s commitment to Reduce UK Carbon Emissions and is targeting the top 10% of Carbon Dioxide producers. This is over and above the present Climate Change Agreements and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Businesses will have to buy ‘Allowances’ (equivalent to 10% of expenditure) to match their Carbon Output and the goal is then to increase Energy Efficiency. The scheme will put all Allowance payments into ‘the pot’ and the pot will be shared out on an annualised basis, linked to the success of participant’s improved Energy Efficiency. There will be League Tables or ‘Name & Shame’ lists. Your perception of the definition probably depending on how well your business is doing.

What Next?

All businesses with one or more settled half hourly meter , should have received from the Environment Agency a letter explain that the business will need to register as ‘CRC Participant’ or submit an ‘Information Disclosure’ to prove you’re not required to become a full participant at this time. (Ultimately all businesses will become part of the scheme over the next few years.)
You can contact Torse or your Suppliers directly, as they will be required to provide this information.
This will be an ongoing requirement and eventually thresholds for full ‘Participation’ in the scheme will reduce until all businesses are involved.

Where does that leave intermediaries and their clients and the trade associations that support them? The lobbying of Ofgem and BIS, The Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, even Vince Cable is successful only to a limited degree. Ofgem is a good place to start. Consider the actual facts of the situation, Ofgem was never put in place to sort out our grievances with Suppliers. Their stated role of ensuring a competitive market, in truth has largely been achieved. They have already changed direction to focus on the longer term Carbon Efficiency of the whole National Electricity distribution network, thereby ultimately providing end users with the real opportunity to reduce consumption and improve efficiency.

Perhaps we shift our focus to increasing knowledge and skills levels and making sure our clients need our relationships. The market place is not so much becoming more sophisticated, rather more fragmented and complicated. We need to get to grips with metering as a service area for clients, similarly CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Agency responsibilities, Energy management guidance and advice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s already turning into a ‘buggers muddle’ with AMR/Smart metering and interoperability issues and inconclusive standards, the CRC monster is lurching into life with the Environment Agency’s helpful guidelines and documentation which literally would take weeks to read and digest. The reality for Intermediaries is that these are enormous opportunities to cement our relationships with clients. Who do you think can look after them better, providing them with real commercial choices – us or the suppliers? You make your own mind up.

Despite being relatively new to the job, Andrew is embroiled in Planning and Implementing the updated CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme services for Torse clients. “I’ve been recruited as Head of Marketing, so I have a lot of responsibility but it’s been great to take on such a challenging opportunity,” he says. “My position incorporates project management of offline and online strategies, search engine optimisation, improving the website and investigating social media marketing channels. So far things are going really well.” - E-Skills UK website

Andrew’s first big challenge will be to promote the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme at Torse – a subject gaining significance and importance throughout UK businesses. The scheme is very important to Torse’s client base who will need to be kept informed of developments and ideas – so those employable skills from Loughborough really will be put to the test!

You can see the complete article about Andrew and the Award from the E-Skills UK website.

The downside of what is a necessary and important move, is as you might imagine, we’re inundated with offers of ‘fit-outs’, furniture and other fabulous requirements. We have traditionally tried to maintain a relatively low profile, keeping busy looking after thousands of clients nationally. In practice the Lace Market HQ is a significant part of Torse’s expansion of services, expertise and relocation of some the operations staff in Sherwood at the end of the summer to support our expanded services for clients old and new:

• CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Administration Team
• Metering Team – deal with Metering Contracts/Smart Meters/MOP Agreements etc.
• Energy Management Consultancy.

The fast approaching Carbon Reduction Commitment and smart metering measure means Torse expertise and support will be in hot demand more than ever and the improved HQ will help them to deliver this. To see how Torse can help your business needs give us a call on 0115 910 9190 or contact us via info@torse.co.uk or the Torse contact page.

The news story in more detail can be found on the Nottingham Post website.

Torse has recently been in contact with the Environmental Technology Centre [ETC], a research institute at Nottingham University. The primary focus of the ETC is to provide a service to Small to Medium sized businesses whereby they are able to provide up to 5 days energy usage analysis of a business in terms of their premises and practices with a report featuring advice and recommendations at the end of this process.

This is of particular interest because the ETC have agreed to engage with Torse clients where solutions require dedicated scientific analysis. If you visit the ETC’s case studies page you will find a variety of real-world applications for their analysis and real savings experienced by the clients. Having discussed these with ETC Director Keith Baker and Project Officer Gerald Busca, there are certainly some exciting opportunities to provide Torse clients with opportunity to develop their business by reducing energy costs where possible and planning for future legislation. Mark Johnson director of Torse said:

Torse have been very pleased to have utilised the services of ETC, as they had been looking for some time to find an independent provider of more specialised Energy management advice for their client base. What Torse found in ETC was a sensible, specialised , professional level of support that they would feel more than happy to talk to their clients and be comfortable that those clients would get high quality support from ETC

In response ETC’s director Keith Baker said:

Through the work carried out and the interactions we have had with Torse, we would have no hesitation in referring the clients of the Environmental Technology Centre to them for their energy procurement needs. They like us, offer an independent brokerage and consultancy ensuring the client gets the best options.

If you would like to discuss your project or want further information then contact the ETC team on 0115 8466096 or visit their website at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/etc/ where you can download case studies and view resources available.

Torse has been working in conjunction with ETC, The Environmental Technology Centre at Nottingham University, to balance Energy Management wishes with Conservation Area requirements. We have also been in discussion as to whether the Torse building could be linked into the Enviroenergy heating and energy network, although this may be a longer term project.

We will update you with more news and images soon. We look forward to meeting you at our new premises!

Businesses were probably as keen to try and understand how BGB’s current focus on increasing the value extracted from Business users would sit with a professed intention to offer high levels of service to SME groups.

Our business energy supply and services segment is performing well. Our focus continues to be on the SME market and on higher value Industrial and Commercial customers, where we are able to offer high levels of service to multi-site organisations and other accounts requiring more sophisticated solutions. Improvements in operational performance, strong renewals and higher than expected demand for energy as a result of the cold weather, have enabled us to deliver further improvements in margin. We again expect to be able to deliver strong year on year profit growth in this business.
– Centrica Interim Management Statement

Hopefully this won’t translate into higher procurement costs for Electricity and gas contracts, and reduced support levels for the rest of us remaining 2nd Class users. How can you cut a further £100 million out of a back office that was struggling to deliver service anyway; it was not so long ago that Energywatch (as was then) condemned BGB for the worst customer service, which was to be resolved by thousands of redundancies and moving some Customer Services areas to Indian call centres, that said more recent research suggests the BGB is now relatively better than the rest of the Big Six.

Well, maybe all is not lost the Conference is hopefully going to be rearranged later in the year.

Businesses need help and support. Such is the nature of this situation, that, according to the UIA (Utilities Intermediaries Association) suppliers maintain that 60-70% of this market place is using TPIs (Third Party Intermediaries) better known as brokers and consultants. Whilst the core of this sector is made up of sensible, reliable and supportive businesses, others masquerade and don’t deliver the appropriate levels of service.

How can businesses ensure that they are getting properly accredited professional organisations to support them? This is once again where the UIA comes in. The UIA has been working hard over the three years it has been in existence to establish and build credibility in the market for Third Parties, both with Consumers and Suppliers, and has regular interaction with OFGEM and other legislative contacts such as the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The Association’s membership now accounts for more than 25,000 Business Energy Contracts and is seeking to grow in these more turbulent times. An important and probably fundamental recent achievement has been that of open recognition in turn from Consumer Focus (with a direct Weblink to the UIA’s Accredited members page).

It should be said Torse has been watching with interest for a couple of years now, albeit looking in rather than participating. Torse has made a commercial decision to sign up for as an Associate Trial member for six months, prior to Full membership. We’re looking forward to rolling our sleeves up and getting involved. This is about ultimately protecting our clients interest and enabling TPIs to continue providing sensible and professional support.

What about you?

The Government has passed legislation requiring all suppliers to replace both Electricity and Gas meters with automatic meters for all (but the smallest) businesses by 6th April 2010. It might sound a long way away, but they will have to change 200,000 meters.

Guess who pays? The government has allowed suppliers to pass on all the costs to businesses. This will be either through your supply contract (much the same as it is for most businesses at the moment) or a separate AMR Metering contract. This will inevitably cause some confusion when Renewing or changing your Gas and Electricity supply contracts; the business or whoever looks after your Energy Supply arrangements will generally be able to assist in this area. This information really belongs to the business and so you can sort out all your own metering arrangements and not just keep paying the supplier.

What does AMR mean for your business?

Advantages

• No more Estimated Billing!
• Ability to Measure Energy Use means you can better manage energy Costs
• In the Future there may be supply contracts better matched to your usage patterns
• For businesses liable for CRC may mean exclusion from 10% penalty figure in allowances

Disadvantages

• Separate Ownership of the meter
• Installation and ongoing costs.
• Confusion when changing supplier

To all applicants of the job advertised on this site on 21 October:

Thank you for your participation in our recruitment process for the Client & Supplier Management Role. A decision has been made about the position and I’m afraid another candidate has been offered the position.

We were generally impressed by the standard of applicants, where your skills and experience, demonstrated that you patently were strong candidates for the position. At this time your skills and experience do not fit the requirements of the role as well as the final selection.

We do feel that many of you have much to offer the right role in the right organisation and would be pleased if you would consider Torse again in the future for other positions which are intended to evolve from our continuing development. We wish you well with your current endeavours.