Putting A Stop To Energy Bills That Cost The Earth " The Peoples Power"

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on April 6, 2012 at 7:03

Other companies are doing  this too - the 'Which' consumer organisation has a 'Big Switch to Cheaper Energy', aiming to use the barganing power of 250,000 people...

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Permalink Reply by David Barry on April 6, 2012 at 11:28

What happens when someone gets themselves into the position where they are using the bargaining power of 60 million people?

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on April 6, 2012 at 12:14

Nationalisation?

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Permalink Reply by David Barry on April 6, 2012 at 11:28

Here is another sort of initiative:-

http://thecommunitypower.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/community-owned-sol...

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on April 6, 2012 at 12:53

This is one of a number of projects from Transition Brixton.

Brixton Energy claim to be the first people to help council-owned social-housing tower blocks reduce carbon footprint, save money and increase community well-being by putting solar panels on top of three buildings:

They were oversubscribed and got the £56k requested last month, so now they're live. One of them told me they returned money to large subscribers so that more people could put in an average of £250 each, all of which they will get back, at an interest rate of around 3% - better than most other investments currently offer.

Brixtin Energy also provided draught-busting services and facilitated external cladding, so bills came down. They knocked on every door and got a really warm reception.

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Transition Brixton also helped introduce the Brixton Pound (there are a number of Transition groups in Haringey - why can't we do this here?)

I like the fact that Brixton have a system where people can pay by text (spend £10, get £11 worth) in local shops. According to the New Economics Foundation (2002):

'On average supermarkets and other large chains spend just 10-12 pence in every pound in the local community.'

Spend in a local shop and it could be that more than 86p sticks around. Here's the second edition of the Pound note - collectors alone bought over £10,000 worth of the first edition:

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Permalink Reply by team on April 10, 2012 at 14:24

Hi all

Its Mike from thePeoplesPower here.

Great to see you discussing what we are doing , please get in touch via the website or email if you have any questions.

We are very committed to preventing fuel poverty and have started setting up collaborations with Housing associations http://www.thepeoplespower.co.uk/energy/housing-associations-sign-up we'd love to get something going in Harringay too.  

Of course as individuals you can all sign up as well.

Hope to hear from you (or see lots of sign ups with Harringay postcodes)

best

mike

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on April 10, 2012 at 16:18

Hi Mike! Couple of questions if you have time:

1) Can you say why anyone would sign up with you guys rather than the  'Big Switch to Cheaper Energy', organised by the consumer organisation Which, who are much more likely to have a much bigger customer base than you?

2) You write:

>>We are very committed to preventing fuel poverty

Do you mean that you want as many customers as possible so you can get a slightly lower price and so help poorer people that way or is there anything else?

3) How many full time paid staff do you have? How much money is invested in your company and by whom?

Thanks!

Chris

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Permalink Reply by team on April 11, 2012 at 14:21

Hi Chris

lots of questions there.  We understand your suspicion - after all the energy sector has an appalling record for dishonest selling practices - we have set ourselves up to be different.

In answer to 1) - Big switch will have more customers than us - we believe that this will not help them get a better deal than us as we have a number of factors that are in our favour

- we limit the size of collective switches to a number so that all energy companies can participate - 250,000 is too big for all the small companies.  More companies participating with us - means potential for more savings (also most of the smaller energy companies have a better customer service record - so we maybe able to help people switch to a company with better customer service - depending on who wins). 

- we charge a £2 referral fee - this is £38 less than Which (or even more than anyone else) - we will be passing as much of this as we can on to you.

- we are IT experts who have built the front and back end systems ourselves (Which have invested 000s in their systems - this saving again is aimed at being passed on to you)

2) No - We do want more customers - but especially those with a community focus. We have gone out of our way to try to reach beyond the "switching classes" - for example see our recent work with Housing associations - we are trying to do more of this

http://www.thepeoplespower.co.uk/energy/housing-associations-sign-up

3) we have no paid staff - All the money invested in the site has come from us and we are all working unpaid.  We are a not for profit community interest company.  Our company registration number is  05754156 

hope this helps 

mike

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on April 11, 2012 at 14:36

Hi Mike - thanks for the reply. It's not suspicion it's curiosity - you're all unpaid, so I guess this is a charitable act. I looked your company up and I guess the People's Power is you and Joe, financed by the profits from your web design/hosting company.

>>250,000 is too big for all the small companies

Do you have a list of 'all the small companies'? Do you really think that you'll get a better deal than 'Which?' because they'll have too many customers?

>> most of the smaller energy companies have a better customer service record - so we maybe able to help people switch to a company with better customer service.

So the deal is that you will sell all our energy accounts to one energy company and charge us £2 each - can you give a typical example of what deal you expect to get and how much profit will you retain for your Community Interest Company?

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Permalink Reply by team on April 11, 2012 at 15:10

Hi Chris

there are 4 key volunteers + help from lots of others.

- and yes it has been set up from the profits of our IT consultancy

As to getting a better deal than Which - we don't know yet - the energy market is very complex and there are some reasons why we will be competitive due to being a smaller size.  This is a new area - so no guarantees! - but it is free for a household and there is no obligation to take a deal with us so you have nothing to lose.

(Incidentally when we planned this, we did not think we could ever achieve numbers above 20,000 - so planned to get as many as possible - Which have achieved a larger size than we thought possible for us)

- households will not get charged anything - the £2 charge comes from the energy company - nearly all of them pay referral fees - at a much higher level than we are charging.  (However in a way you are right any referral fee that is charged is ultimately paid for by consumers in one way or another - we are just charging less than anyone else - so this is another way we can pass on savings to you).

As to profits (strictly speaking as a not for profit these are "surpluses above running costs") we will have to see what happens - however we have made commitments to how these surpluses will be used http://www.thepeoplespower.co.uk/community-interest-company/  

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