Our supply partner, Robin Hood Energy, recently announced the purchase, by British Gas, of its business – which included Ebico’s energy customers.  We understand that British Gas has pledged to match Ebico customers’ existing energy supply deals for the remainder of their term.  Alternatively, should they wish, Ebico customers may select an alternative supplier and will not be charged an exit fee.

At Ebico, tackling fuel poverty has been our objective for the last 21 years and, despite the sad news from Robin Hood Energy, we will be continuing this mission.  We will be making an exciting announcement regarding our campaign for affordable, and sustainable, home warmth for all.

In the meantime, you can find answers to some of the questions you might have at www.robinhoodenergy.co.uk/britishgas.

Due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak and the Government’s social distancing advice to protect our staff and wider public we have closed our customer service and sales lines. We continue to monitor the Government’s advice and we will notify our customers once our lines are reopened.

To get a quick quote and switch your energy to Ebico please go to quote.ebico.org.uk.

You can still manage your account online via account.ebico.org.uk. If you have not registered to manage your account online, yet, you can do so via the same link.

If your fixed term energy plan is coming to an end, or it has come to an end, you can renew your plan via online account management account.ebico.org.uk or complete a new application on our website quote.ebico.org.uk.

If you are currently off supply or have an urgent issue topping up your prepayment meter, please text Support to 80818 and we’ll call you back as soon as possible.

The operating hours of our sales line will be 9am-5pm. The number of agents available to take calls has been reduced so it may take longer to answer your call. If you wish to receive a quote and switch your energy to Ebico you can do so also via quote.ebico.org.uk.

If you require assistance in the case of an electric emergency, please dial 105.

If you require assistance in the case of a gas emergency, please dial 0800 111 999.

Ebico customers’ feedback to Which? has placed us in second place in the Energy Company Satisfaction Survey 2020 out of 35 companies scrutinised. As always, we’d like to thank all our customers who participated in the survey and have placed us, once again, amongst the top-performing energy companies for customer service and value.

For over 20 years, at Ebico, we’ve striven to give our customers a great customer experience, whilst at the same time maintaining our focus on fighting the growing issue of fuel poverty in Britain. Providing our customers with consistent good value and customer experience is a continuous effort that our team is proud of.
There is always room for improvement, and we will continue to work hard towards providing our customers the very best customer experience in the industry.

You can check the full results on the Which? website which.co.uk/energy-results

Results based on an online survey of 8,353 members of the public in September 2019. Customer score is based on satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. Customers also rated aspects of service; these are presented as star ratings. We need at least 40 responses to give a result; a dash (-) means too few responses to give a rating. Sample sizes in brackets. Full WRP results at which.co.uk/energy-results. a Flow Energy is now part of Octopus Energy.

Over the past 20 years we have worked hard to provide our customers with a consistently great customer experience. We recognise that there are always opportunities for improvement, which is why we’ll never stop focusing on the service that we offer our customers.

Our CEO’s Phil Levermore said “This is a great result and, as Ebico celebrates 20 years of service to British energy customers, it’s a real testament to the enduring success that our consistent focus on customer satisfaction has delivered.”

The 1990s was a decade of significant change for the UK energy sector. At the start of the decade both British Gas and all regional electricity boards were privatised. This completely transformed the industry from a state-owned monopoly sector to a privately owned one. Subsequently six major energy suppliers emerged – commonly referred to as the Big Six. The Big Six included British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, npwer, Scottish Power and SSE.

The idea behind privatising the energy sector was to increase efficiency and reduce prices by introducing competition and offering households more options. However, the reality was quite different. The Big Six took advantage of the newly liberalized market, formed an oligopoly and focused on making as much profit as possible for their shareholders. By the end of the decade, energy prices were rocket high and many households were left unable to pay their bills. Ebico decided to do something about it.

In 1998 we came up with a new not-for-profit business model that focused on tackling Britain’s fuel poverty issue and giving back to our customers. Unlike the Big Six suppliers, Ebico set up as a Limited by Guarantee Company. This meant that instead of focusing on shareholders and profit, we could focus on re-investing our financial surpluses in our business and helping those in, or at risk of, fuel poverty.

Our mission was simple – to offer affordable energy deals to everyone and fight fuel poverty. We found that households using Pay As You Go meters were generally the households which struggled the most financially, yet they were the ones being discriminated against and were not being offered the best prices by energy suppliers.

In 2009 Ebico went one step further and became the first energy company to set up a system whereby any of our operating surplus was donated to a charity, the Ebico Trust. The Ebico Trust was created to support projects in fuel-poor communities, helping them reduce their energy bills. Our donations to the Trust exceeded 1.3m.

In January 2017, to boost our commitment to our fight against fuel poverty, we established a new energy partnership with Robin Hood Energy. Like Ebico, Robin Hood Energy is a not-for-profit company and is dedicated to providing affordable energy. Together, we can continue our fight against rising fuel poverty in the UK, providing energy deals that function fairly for all consumers.

Today, the Big Six continue to dominate the industry. Combined, they have about 79% of market share for electricity and 78% for gas (December 2017). This could be due to the fact that over most households in Britain have never changed suppliers.

In the past 20 years Ebico has driven a lot of change, but we still have more work to do in the coming years. Although there has been progress, and we are on the way to tackling fuel poverty and creating a fairer energy market, we still feel there is a lot more we could do to help.

Our goals for the next coming years are to:

• Continue to help as many financially vulnerable households out of fuel poverty as possible
• Continue to develop innovative energy plans for our customers to suit modern day living

This year, following UK Government legislation, the energy market Regulator (Ofgem) has developed a mechanism for capping variable and default energy plans. We engaged with Ofgem (you can find our response here) during the consultation period for the Price Cap and highlighted the risk that the Cap would force us to end the zero standing charge variable plan. Unfortunately, Ofgem did not change their plans in response to our representations. Regrettably, the Price Cap, being implemented by the end of the year, makes our Ebico Zero variable energy plan structure commercially non-viable. To remain both compliant and commercially viable, we have had to review the Ebico Zero energy plan and introduce a standing charge. As the revised plan will include a standing charge, its name will change to ‘Ebico Standard’.

We understand that, for most of our customers, the no standing charge element of the Ebico Zero energy plan is its key feature which they will want to keep. So, we have introduced Ebico Zero Green Fixed. This is a no standing charge, green, fixed term energy contract and, as it is not our default contract, it is not subject to the Price Cap mechanisms. The price is fixed for 12 months and the energy plan has no exit fees, giving customers complete peace of mind. For compliance reasons, customers are asked to opt-in to the Ebico Zero Green Fixed energy plan. We have made this opt-in process easy and straight-forward and customers can switch with a click of a button through their online account management portal or call our dedicated opt-in line on 0800 953 9597 (Mon-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-5pm).

Below is a comparison between Ebico Zero and Ebico Zero Green Fixed.

¹ The electricity that we provide for our green energy plans will be certified as being sourced from UK based wind and solar generators. We actively look for opportunities to support new schemes but some of our energy will be provided from existing UK based projects.

Last year Ofgem, the energy market Regulator, introduced a cap on the price that suppliers charge Pay As You Go (PAYG) meter customers. The cap is reviewed by Ofgem every 6 months and, in April this year, it was raised. This prompted many of our competitors to increase their prices in line with the cap. We, however, left our Ebico PrePay price unchanged. Unfortunately, over the last year the cost of wholesale energy has increased significantly, and we are no longer able to absorb these costs. So, from 31st August 2018, we will be increasing our Ebico PrePay energy plan price by an average 5.6% for a dual fuel customer.

We are writing to all our customer individually with their personalised new energy price and cost.

Whilst we are increasing our Ebico PrePay energy plan price, we have still managed to keep the price below the Ofgem’s price cap levels.

If you’re an Ebico PrePay energy plan customer, you don’t need to do anything, the new prices will be applied to your meter when you top up on, or after, 31st August.