Unhappy ‘big six’ customers flock to Good Energy, whose profits see sharp rise

Renewable energy supplier Good Energy has revealed 2013 saw its customer base increase by 32% and its pre-tax profits more than double to £3.3m in 2013, as a result of dissatisfied ‘big six’ customers switching.

The company’s revenue grew by 43% while the pre-tax profit figure represents a 136% jump. Electricity customers grew 25% to 40,000 while gas grew 76% to 15,000. A further 59,000 households and businesses use its feed-in tariff service for their rooftop solar panels.

Good Energy, which derives 100% of its electricity from renewables and 60% from wind power alone, opened a wind farm in Hampole near Doncaster last month. It also has a 9.2 megawatt (MW) site in Cornwall.

The firm’s CEO Juliet Davenport its encouraging preliminary results for last year reflected a growing trend of customers wanting to know where their energy comes from.

“This is a debate that is long overdue. People are becoming interested in where their power comes from, how it is generated”, she said.

However, another reason clean energy companies are seeing their customer base increase and profits rise, is that many people are turning their back to the big six energy firms – British Gas, SSE, EDF, E.ON, Npower and Scottish Power.

Recent figures showed complaints to energy companies had tripled in the space of a year, suggesting that many customers are unsatisfied with the big six – which controls 95% of the market.

On the other hand, green suppliers such as Good Energy and Ecotricity regularly score high marks in customer satisfaction, most recently in an annual survey led by the consumer group Which?.

“Our rapid customer growth, including from households generating their own power, demonstrates the growing appeal and value of renewable energy”, Davenport said.

Good Energy, along with Ecotricity, announced a winter price freeze on energy bills last year, at a time when the biggest firms were unveiling tariff increases.

Photo: Attilio Lombardo via Free Images

Further reading:

Renewable energy specialists Good Energy and Ecotricity ‘setting benchmark’ in customer satisfaction

Quakers launch initiative to buy 100% clean power from Good Energy

Green energy firms Good Energy and Ecotricity break mould with winter price freezes

Energy customers switching suppliers at three-year high, says trade body

Good Energy customer on BBC Question Time: ‘my energy bills have never been cheaper’