Micro businesses and small businesses

Am I a small business?

Based on Ofgem guidelines, you are a small business if you…

• Use no more than 200,000 kWh of electricity per year OR
• Use no more than 500,000 kWh of gas per year OR
• Employ less than 50 employees (or their full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover of at most £6.5 million or a balance sheet of no greater than £5 million

The consumption threshold applies to each fuel being supplied.

Am I a micro business?

Based on Ofgem guidelines, you are a micro business if you…

• Use no more than 100,000 kWh of electricity per year OR
• Use no more than 293,000 kWh of gas per year OR
•  Employ less than 10 employees (or their full time equivalent) and have an annual turnover or balance sheet of no greater than £2 million

The consumption threshold applies to each fuel being supplied.

Micro business protection

See the standards, rules and guidelines set out by the energy regulator Ofgem, to help, support and protect micro businesses.

What can I expect when I agree a new energy plan?

Suppliers are required to:

• Let you know the key terms of the plan before you agree to it
• Send you the contract and terms & conditions within 10 days including renewal terms for fixed term plans
• Include the contract end date and the latest date you can give notice to terminate on your bill if you have a fixed term plan

What happens when my energy plan is ending?

• If you have a fixed term plan, you’ll receive a renewal reminder around 60 days before its due to end, explaining your options. This should include your current prices, new prices and annual energy consumption to make comparisons easier
• It can take up to 5 days to switch energy supplies. In most cases it’s earlier, or you can request a later start date

How do I go about comparing business energy?

It is useful to have to hand the amount of energy you use a year in kWh and the date your current contract ends. Then you can:

• Compare types of business energy contract
• Use online comparison sites to compare business gas rates
• Speak to a broker to help arrange your new contract

Standards of Performance for micro businesses

How do we book and keep appointments?

Ofgem's Standards of Performance offers micro businesses certain guarantees if we miss or cancel an appointment with less than one working day's notice.

What are the Standards of Conduct to ensure fair treatment of microbusinesses?

Standards of Conduct is a Licence condition that requires all energy suppliers to treat customers fairly regarding billing, energy contracts and switching.

The key principles:

• To operate in a fair, honest, transparent, appropriate and professional way
• To provide information to customers that is complete, accurate, easy-to-understand, relevant and fair
• To provide a transparent and complete customer service.

Back billing for micro businesses

What are the back-billing rules?

Ofgem has set out back billing rules to help with problems caused by receiving a 'catch up' gas or electricity bill.

What do I do if I have a complaint?

We want to sort things out quickly for you.

We'll make every effort to get your complaint sorted within a day of getting it. But, sometimes it can take a little longer.

If you're a micro or small business and we haven't been able to sort things out within 8 weeks, or we can't agree a way forward with you (we call this 'deadlock'), you have the right to pass your complaint to the Ombudsman Services: Energy.

The Ombudsman is there to help sort out disputes between energy suppliers and their customers. Their service is free to use and they're totally independent - they don't take sides and their decisions are based only on the information they have.

Need more help?

Ofgem questions and answers for microbusinesses.