Business Energy
Six ways to cut energy cost without changing supplier
19 June 2026 · 8 min read
Procurement is only half the bill. These six items sit inside your control today and none of them require signing a new contract.
1. Review your agreed capacity
Half-hourly sites pay for reserved capacity regardless of use. Compare your agreed supply capacity against your actual annual peak. Where there is a persistent gap, your distribution network operator can reduce it, and the saving recurs every month with no downside beyond needing to re-apply if demand later grows.
2. Check your VAT rate
Business energy carries VAT at the standard rate by default, but qualifying low-usage supplies and premises with substantial charitable or residential use are eligible for the reduced rate. Eligibility is claimed by declaration to your supplier, and where it applies retrospective adjustment is often possible.
3. Reclaim overpaid Climate Change Levy
CCL is charged per unit on most business supplies, but organisations holding a climate change agreement, and supplies qualifying for relief, should not be paying the full rate. Errors here persist for years because the line item is small enough to be ignored.
4. Correct your reactive power
Sites running large motors, chillers or older lighting ballasts often draw significant reactive power, which appears as an excess charge on half-hourly bills. Power factor correction equipment is comparatively inexpensive and the payback is frequently under two years.
5. Validate the bills you already have
Estimated reads, duplicated standing charges, charges continuing after a site closure, and incorrect meter multipliers are all common. A structured review of twelve months of invoices against meter data recovers money in a meaningful minority of cases.
6. Shift load rather than reduce it
If part of your process can run outside peak distribution bands, the same kilowatt hours cost less. On a half-hourly supply this is a pricing decision as much as an operational one, and half-hourly data will tell you quickly whether the opportunity exists at your site.