Member Article

Gazprom Energy tackles legislation confusion

Manchester-headquartered Gazprom Energy has launched a guide to the government’s Energy Bill, in response to widespread confusion among its SME customers about the proposed legislation.

The company, which supplies electricity and gas to more than 11,000 UK businesses, said that many of its customers were unaware that the Bill – a package of reforms designed to speed up the UK’s transition to low-carbon and renewable sources of power - would lead to monthly price rises, as the government passes on some of the cost of this investment to end users.

Gazprom Energy’s guide provides a jargon-free overview of the Bill as well as practical advice to help SMEs to manage their energy consumption and is available from the company’s website.

Dale Marriott, head of UK operations at Gazprom Energy, said: “SMEs often don’t have the time or resource to get to grips with what can seem like complex pieces of legislation, which can result in cost rises catching them by surprise.

“There are already a myriad of different industry charges and third party levies - such as distribution and transmission costs – which are beyond the control of customers and their suppliers. When added to the actual unit cost of energy these can make up as much as 35% of the monthly bill. With more charges set to be introduced through the Energy Bill, suppliers need to work harder to help SME customers understand what goes into their monthly bills and to help them actively manage the aspects they can control – their consumption.”

Gazprom Energy was recently named as the best commercial gas supplier for customer satisfaction in a major national survey of business energy users.

It saw-off competition from the ‘Big 6’ energy companies, and other independent suppliers, to take the top spot in the twice-yearly Datamonitor survey, which polls 2,000 UK businesses about their energy suppliers’ performance in key areas including billing, customer service and account management.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gazprom Energy .