Manufacturing budget certainty that is fixed

Today's energy market faces many challenges and it's clear that government needs to strike a balance between policies and investment to help UK manufacturers continue to compete on a global scale. Whilst government investment is needed to reduce the impact of climate change, maintain the UK's energy infrastructure and ensure that the lights are kept on, we've seen businesses face uncertainty and unpredictability in their energy bills due to the increase in non-commodity costs. With policy-based, non-commodity costs now accounting for an estimated 40-50% of electricity bills, it's never been more challenging for businesses to forecast for the year ahead, and it's this rise in bills that is increasingly hitting the bottom-line of many major energy users in the UK. It's therefore not surprising that energy costs have climbed their way up the business agenda and into the board room. With this in mind, we've tried to combat this uncertainty and increase the transparency of bills by launching a new plan called 'Fixed: Certainty'. Crucially, this includes the majority of the additional non-commodity elements of bills and with the Electricity Market Reform finally starting to take shape, we've taken into consideration the immediate costs of Contracts for Difference. For our electricity customers, this also includes the Feed in Tariff and Renewables Obligation, both having caused uncertainty amongst bills for manufacturers in the past. Additionally, third-party network charges and meter-related fees are also included in the total fixed cost. The plan has been designed to meet the needs of the board, provide budget certainty for the duration of fixed contracts and deliver a promise not to reconcile against costs that are agreed as fixed. For our industrial and commercial business customers, Fixed: Certainty went live across both power and gas last month, with an additional dual fuel discount for our customers that use npower for both gas and electricity supply. Whether you are partnered with us or another supplier, you can find out more about the Fixed: Certainty plan and discuss the new product with our dedicated team available on: business@npower.com