If you have a large business that needs more than one energy meter for your electricity and gas, or you have several operational sites, then there is a good chance that you may have multiple energy contracts. This means you can have several business contract expiry dates from different business suppliers.
No doubt, this can take up a lot of your time and effort to manage this instead of using it to take care of your business. In such cases, it’s a good idea to have multi-site energy meters. Thankfully, it’s easier to manage these meters, and Utility Bidder can help you to find a business supplier that offers this service. This page discusses what you need to know about multi-site energy meters.
Multi-site energy meters
Simply put, the more energy meters your business has, the more contracts you must renegotiate or renew so that you can avoid a supplier from rolling you into inflated business energy rates. Therefore, you need to keep track of these renewal dates, negotiate these contracts, and spend more time managing them. The truth is that you may not have enough time to be comparing electricity and gas rates for all these energy meters.
In such cases, it makes sense to work with an energy broker who can offer customized services for your business. The good thing is that reputable brokers can also help you to switch the suppliers or tariffs, meaning you can save money and time. Remember that they can assess all your current energy contracts and negotiate with the suppliers on your behalf.
That said, a multi-site energy contract refers to the one that can cover the energy bill when your business has more than one energy meter. This applies to a business that has several locations or just a single business premises.
There are various benefits of multi-site energy meters. As explained earlier, if you have a business that has more than one business premises, then you can have several energy meters that can all have different plans with different business energy suppliers. The same thing can apply if you have a large business that uses a lot of energy and has several meters throughout one site like an industrial manufacturing plant.
As you can see, in either case, it’s a good idea to switch to a multi-site energy plan so that you can save money and time. In this way, you can place your renewal dates and rates into one plan. Also, it can give you more bargaining power, meaning that business suppliers can offer your preferential prices because you have combined all your contracts into a manageable package.
Even better, having one renewal date can also mean that you can keep track of the expiry date of your current energy deal, meaning there is less chance that your business supplier can roll you onto the more expensive out-of-contract rates. Therefore, if you have many business sites, the best thing you can do is to have one business energy supplier, contract expiry date, and billing date. A broker can help to achieve this because it can be time-consuming to do it yourself.
A good energy broker may know how to deal with multi-site energy meters and multi-site management. Therefore, it’s likely that they can find you the right deal for your business.
Multi-site energy contracts
It’s worth mentioning that you cannot find any specific type of a multi-site energy contract in the market. You need to contact an energy broker so that they can help you to compare business energy deals available for multiple premises or multiple meters. In this way, you can figure out which is the best energy contract for your business considering your situation.
There are usually different types of contracts that you can find for business owners.
There is a fixed-term contract that a supplier charges a fixed rate for each unit of energy that a business uses. Therefore, the supplier fixes this rate for the entire duration of your business contract. Many business owners like this deal because it protects them against price increases. However, this contract doesn’t fix the prices on your monthly energy bills, meaning they can rise and fall depending on the consumption.
There is also a variable-rate contract. With this one, the rate that you can pay for the consumption can fluctuate depending on the energy market activities. Hence, your business bills can rise or fall regardless of the amount of energy you use each month.
Blend and extend is another business energy contract. You can find some business suppliers that can allow you to extend the duration of your business energy contract. Because you use the same supplier, they tend to reward you with lower business rates.
Another business energy contract is called the flex approach. This contract gives you the chance to access favorable wholesale rates. Therefore, you can choose to purchase your business several months ahead when the costs are lower.
A pass-through energy tariff is another common tariff that some providers offer. This tariff can split your business bill between a wholesale energy cost which suppliers fix and other components that contribute to the unit rate that varies.
You should note that business energy suppliers also offer out-of-contract deals. There is a deemed rate tariff that a supplier can place you when you relocate to new business premises but fail to secure a new business energy contract.
And, if you allow a business energy contract to expire and arrange a new deal, then your provider can keep on supplying energy to your business premises. In such cases, the energy supplier can roll you into out-of-contract rates, which can be quite expensive. Out-of-contract and deemed rates are often the most expensive energy tariffs, so you need to secure a new energy deal before they can place you onto these rates.
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