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What criteria would you rate an energy provider on?

Electricity, Tariffs, Monitoring & Providers

Last Post by Mars 3 years ago

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

27958 kWhs

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 3105

Topic starter 21/01/2022 10:02 pm

I'm curious - if you were to rate an electricity/energy provider, what criteria would you rate them on?

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Prunus

(@prunus)

Estimable Member Member

166 kWhs

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 56

21/01/2022 11:26 pm

At the end of the day it's all about tariffs. Might not be the cheapest, but a tariff to suit your use case - eg cheap EV charging overnight. Obviously this is a bit nuts at the moment.

Then, secondary stuff:

can you get in touch with them to sort things out when they inevitably go wrong?
do they have sensible billing (or do they want eg massive direct debits upfront)?
do they generate any renewable electricity themselves, or do they claim to be green by buying renewable certificates instead (a bit of a scam IMHO)? I don't pay a lot of attention to fuel mixes because, until we're 100% renewable 24/7, at the end of the day somebody has to be using gas. It's much better to be building more generation (and storage) to reduce the amount of gas needed than argue about which customers get assigned to which existing generation.
how well does their smart meter/platform/etc work?

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Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Noble Member Moderator

7629 kWhs

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Posts: 775

21/01/2022 11:52 pm

I rate an energy supplier like any other company; a good job for a fair price.

What do I expect in “a good job”? Fitness to my needs, honesty, respect, integrity. Do I expect perfection? No, and I may have to accept the “least bad”.

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

27958 kWhs

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 3105

Topic starter 22/01/2022 10:59 am

As mentioned in another post, we're going to allow homeowners and consumers in the UK post formal reviews. The first two electricity providers are up:

E.ON Next: https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/e-on-next

Octopus Energy: https://renewableheatinghub.co.uk/octopus-energy

The process is quick and easy, and will help consumers get honest reviews. Just scroll all the way to the bottom of the respective posts, to the comments, and there’s a tab for reviews. Please click on it and submit your review.

There are six rating criteria: Tariff variety, price, customer service & support, sensible billing, online portal & app, and easy to contact. Please rate each of the criteria out of 5 stars – 1 star being the worst and 5 stars being excellent.

Lastly, if you'd like me to add your electricity provider next, please just leave leave a reply and I'll get onto it.

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