The UK government has launched a campaign aiming to help small and medium-sized businesses increase energy efficiency and drive down energy bills.
The campaign will highlight a number of measures businesses can implement to reduce energy bills. This comes the same day the government scaled back energy bill support via the less supportive Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS) which replaces the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS).
Energy efficiency has widely been touted as a way to reduce energy demand. With better insulation and more energy efficient products within buildings, many businesses across the UK could reduce their energy bills.
The campaign will “offer guidance on how organisations can make significant savings while cutting emissions, from installing light and heating timers, to turning down boiler flow temperature and changing light bulbs”, the government said.
In a bid to increase awareness, the campaign will be promoted through paid advertorial across TV, radio, social media and more, alongside partnerships with the British Chambers of Commerce and Federation of Small Businesses. A new website will also be launched offering guidance on taking advantage of governmental schemes associated with reducing energy bills.
“Falling wholesale energy prices are welcome news, but this in no way changes our firm, long-term commitments to vastly boost UK energy efficiency across industry and households,” said Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance.
“From today businesses, charities and public sector bodies can access helpful and practical advice on simple actions they can take to substantially reduce their energy use – and potentially increase profits.
“Not only will this help lower operational costs by up to hundreds of thousands of pounds, but smarter energy use will help us deliver on our critical pledges to cut demand by 15% and reach net zero by 2050.”
The campaign comes just days after Cornwall Insight analysis indicated that UK businesses are now facing electricity bill rises of up to 133% from April compared to last year. This is primarily due to the introduced of the EBDS support scheme in comparison to the EBRS.
The EBDS government scheme sets electricity at £19.61 per MWh with a price threshold of £302 per MWh and gas at £6.97 per MWh with a price threshold of £107 per MWh. However, this could lead to a major gulf in terms of much needed support for British businesses amid the energy crisis.
Recent research from npower Business Solutions via its 2023 Business Energy Tracker indicated that 67% of large businesses believe the EBDS scheme won’t go far enough to support them amid the energy crisis.
