When I was a child, there was one national supplier for electricity and gas in the UK. Since privatisation in the late 80s and early 90s, households get to choose who their energy provider will be. It doesn’t change the electrons coming into the house, which is all delivered through the same grid. But in theory at least, we get to shop around for good deals and choose a supplier that suits us.
That was never as easy as it could have been. It involved a certain amount of research and paperwork, signing up and sending meter readings. It was easier not to, which led to a lot of people overpaying because they hadn’t thought about it. That changed with the arrival of price comparison websites, which made it much simpler to compare the various tariffs on the market and make a choice. But it also introduced a new problem.
Price comparison websites make their money through commission, so they charge companies a fee. That gets passed on to consumers through their bills. With price comparison websites hoovering up more of the switching process, those fees have risen and have pushed prices up for everybody. Commercial interests don’t necessarily align with users interests – hello enshittification again – and so users are shown energy deals that companies have paid to promote, not the cheapest on the market. There are now comparison sites ranking the best comparison sites, an almost surreal proliferation of middle men between energy companies and their customers.
This is an aggressive market, with companies spending huge advertising budgets to get consumers onto their platform. The costs of those primetime TV adverts get passed on to customers too of course, and there’s a murky side to some of their practices. Compare the Market have even been fined for breaching competition law, which is ironic for a company that sells itself on healthy competition between suppliers. (For those who were paying attention, that meerkat always was an oligarch and not to be trusted).
Wattswatt is a new social enterprise that challenges this poor service. Describing themselves as a national energy service, their aim is to help households to avoid overpaying for energy. Or to put it another way, to get more energy for the same money.
Their research suggests that almost 20 million households are paying more than they need to, and that they could save 5-14% on their bills if the comparison websites actually showed them the best value deals. So Wattswatt will feature all the available tariffs, and use people’s energy data to identify the best deals for them.
This isn’t just better for customers either. It’s better for the utility companies too, because they actually get to compete on merit rather than paying extortionate fees to the comparison sites to come higher in the rankings. Comparison sites have become a “lose-lose” for both utilities and consumers, founder Lisa Malyon tells me, and so the utility companies are offering to sponsor Wattswatt, alongside start-up funding from the Centre for Energy Equality.
Energy bills have become a contested political topic, with political parties of all stripes prepared to sacrifice environmental measures to get bills down for voters. But here’s a practical and fair intervention: cut out the rent-seekers in the middle. If you’re wondering if you’re overpaying for your energy, perhaps you might like to give Wattswatt a try.
The Earthbound Report 