Nearly 40% of large businesses and 21% of SMEs are unhappy with their current energy contracts, according to a new survey.
Costly rates, inflexibility, and a lack of options to better control their energy usage are the chief causes for complaint. In fact, 62% of businesses overall would be willing to switch over to a new electricity provider if they were given more options.
The responses – from more than 300 business decision-makers Australia – are revealed in a survey commissioned by electricity retailer and energy management firm Flow Power.
Flow Power CEO Matthew van der Linden says the findings come at a time when renewable energy is becoming more and more available to Australian businesses and yet businesses feel shut out of the market.
“Our position at Flow Power is to ‘open the doors’ to sustainable power and pricing flexibility, so that organisations can access energy tailored to their needs and when prices are low, thereby reducing their costs,” he says. “The solutions are already there.”
Flexibility is also hugely important to many businesses, with 46 per cent of survey respondents saying they would be prepared to pay an additional 2-3% above market rate in their electricity contract to enable them to pay a lower rate when the market price dips.
Flow Power has responded to these demands – offering a new generation of energy contracts that are said to offer flexibility and access to cheaper renewables pricing. The Sydney Opera House, City of Adelaide, Flinders Port, Snack Brands, Molycop and the City of Sydney are some of the organisations to benefit from Flow Power’s offerings.
According to Flow Power, any business that was signed up to its Power Active plan with the Active Option saved between seven and 28 per cent on their base energy rates from April-December 2020.