As a small business owner or operator the more you know and understand about your energy use, the better prepared you will be to consider alternative offers for energy, in the same way as you do with other inputs in your business.

COMPARING MARKET OFFERS:

You will need to decide your preferred balance between price, service, risk and supply flexibility.

Prices:

• Market offers may have quite different structures to each other and to the standing contract.

• When comparing prices it is essential to make sure all comparisons are based on the same energy use and all charges are included in the total price.

• Even if you have asked for these things in your request, check that they appear in the offer and the contract.

Value adding:

Is the energy retailer offering any of the following and do you need them to?

• Tariffs - will they check that you are on the best network tariff? (This may change if your load grows for example).
• Energy management - do they provide advice on how to use less energy? Do they provide incentives for you to reduce your demand at peak times?
• Payment terms, flexible billing, account management.

The Estimator tool has been developed to assist small business customers consuming <160 MWh electricity per year.

The Small Business Estimator is designed to compare prices of electricity market contracts based on offers a small business customer has received from electricity retailers, and has the facility to compare up to three separate offers.

To help us improve this free service your  feedback would be appreciated.