Questions to ask an energy provider

Important! Before you call an energy provider or energy broker, make sure you read this chapter so that you fully understand concepts like tariffs and ‘time-of-use’ pricing.

When you’re ready to call, have one year of electricity and gas bills to hand. This will tell you how much you are currently spending and will be useful when it comes to negotiating a new energy rate. Here are the questions to ask.

Energy efficiency questions:

• Can you help us to reduce energy use in our business?
• Can you give us a free energy audit and advice?
• Can you supply us with energy displays or ‘smart’ meters so that we can track our energy use in realtime?
• Do you provide online energy monitoring?
• Can you supply or install energy efficiency measures that we pay for through our bills over a set period of time? For example, installing solar power, solar hot water, heat pump hot water systems or efficient lighting.
• Do you have other finance packages for installing equipment that reduces our energy bills?

Contract and tariff questions:  

• What are the best rates that you can offer our type of business? How many cents per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) do you charge?
• Do you offer ‘time-of-use’ tariffs or ‘off-peak’ rates where we pay less for energy that we use during non-peak times of the day? (See ‘Can you take advantage of ‘time-of-use’ pricing?‘ later in this step.)^[1]
• Do we have to pay a peak capacity charge or maximum demand charge? (See ‘Do you pay a peak capacity charge?’ later in this step.)
• How often will we be billed?
• Does the method of bill payment affect our costs? For example, if I pay our bill over the phone by credit card, will it cost more than paying it by direct debit?
• Are discounts available for paying our bill on time and do you charge extra for late payment of bills?
• Are there any connection or disconnection fees?
• Do we need to sign up to a contract? If so, for how long? Do we have to pay any fees if we want to terminate before the end of the contract period?
• What happens at the end of the contract period? Does the plan change in any way?
• What price can you pay for solar energy that is generated at our business?
• Will my current tariff change if I install solar?