Case Studies

Background

Action Homeless is a charity based in Leicestershire dedicated to tackling the causes of homelessness. Over the past 40 years, Action Homeless has developed and evolved into the leading homelessness charity in Leicester supporting around 350 people every year across their 22 sites, and 44 meters. As a charity it is critical to keep business costs under control and Resolve Energy we able to help them make a significant saving.

Project Overview

The charity had previously engaged two energy brokers before becoming involved with Resolve and as a result no single broker was able to look at the organisation as a whole and bring saving across all of the sites.

Resolve performed a full invoice audit for the energy contracts across all 22 sites and it quickly became clear that no efforts had been made by either of the previous brokers to simplify the contracts and save money. The contracts were spread across multiple suppliers, on various rates with completely different end dates. Some meters were actually out of contract and were suffering the high rates as a result.

Resolve were able to arrange backdated contracts for those sites and meters that were out of contract and this resulted in a massive £25,000 refund, a major boost for any charity.

In addition to this, Resolve were able to negotiate new long term energy contracts across all 44 meters with a single supplier that benefit from common end dates. This resulted in an annual saving of over £19,000.

Outcome and Next Steps

Now that the organisation is dealing with a single energy supplier across all of its sites and they are benefitting from more streamlined budgeting and account management.

All the sites in the organisation have been fitted with Smart Meters at no cost which means that all future bills will be based on accurate actual meter readings rather than estimates.

As Action Homeless have since expanded and we have been able to align a further 6 new sites with the common end date contract.

Background

Providence Row Housing Association (PRHA) is a specialist housing association helping people who are homeless with a wide range of residential and non-residential services.

Spending over £120,000 on their energy bills

Project Overview

38 sites across the East End of London with various suppliers and contract end dates. Many of these were not in contract and therefore paying out of contract rates.

Most of the customer’s bills were based on estimated reads and therefore inaccurate leading to overpayments.

Resolve Energy conducted a full bill validation which included checking rates and contract statuses for all 38 sites.

Set up a common end date contract with one single supplier for electricity and gas.

Annual saving of 5% against their current rates

Outcome and Next Steps

Energy bills are now centralised from the single supplier, budgeting and management of the accounts are streamlined.

Smart Meters have been fitted to all sites at no cost, so moving forward all bills will be based on actual meter reads and therefore accurate.

Background

Birmingham Jewish Community Care (BJCC) are a registered charity that has been established for over 180 years which was originally set up to care for newly arrived immigrants from eastern Europe. In the years since then the organisation had acquired homes to take care of the sick and elderly. These homes subsequently became too small and in 1994 the organisation opened a large, purpose built care home which in 2010 was extended to include an additional centre on the same site.

Keen to keep an eye on business costs, BJCC originally contacted Resolve Energy back in 2012 when another broker was handling the energy contracts for their 2 electricity and 2 gas meters

Project Overview

An in-depth energy invoice audit led to the discovery that BJCC had been paying the incorrect VAT rate of 20% and an additional Climate Change Levy (CCL), for which they were exempt, for the previous 5 years. After a further and more detailed investigation by Resolve Energy it was discovered that the organisation had made overpayments worth £20,000, the equivalent to approximately 15% of their annual spend on energy.

Resolve Energy were able to work on behalf of BJCC to recover ALL of the monies owed to the organisation and arranged for refund within 30 days.

In addition to this large refund Resolve were able to negotiate and initiate new energy contracts for all meters and deal with the relevant VAT forms to ensure the bills from their supplier were on the correct rates moving forward.

Outcome and Next Steps

Resolve Energy are proud to be working with BJCC and have forged an ongoing relationship where we work alongside them to regularly monitor and audit the bills to ensure that these errors do not occur again and all other rates are being correctly billed.

BJCC were able to reallocate the £20,000 elsewhere within their budget and have subsequently secured long term competitive contract extensions.