How does the size of your business affect your Ts and Cs?

Ofgem has outlined a number of protections for micro and small businesses which are reflected in the way that we handle your energy account. In this article, we explain the definitions of micro business and small business, as well as the protections available to you.

What qualifies as a microbusiness?

A business qualifies as a microbusiness if it has:

  • Fewer than 10 employees AND a turnover or balance sheet of less than £2 million (all supply points qualify)
  • OR uses less than 100,000kWh of electricity a year (electricity supply qualifies only)
  • OR uses less than 293,000kWh of gas a year (gas supply qualifies only)

What qualifies as a small business?

A business qualifies as a small business if it has:

  • Fewer than 50 employees AND a turnover of less than £6.5 million or a balance sheet total of at most £5.0 million (all supply points qualify)
  • OR uses less than 200,000kWh of electricity a year (electricity supply qualifies only)
  • OR uses less than 500,000kWh of gas a year (gas supply qualifies only)

What should our customers expect from Good Energy?

  • We’ll assess if your business meets the microbusiness or small business criteria at the point of contract, which includes:
    • Switching to Good Energy
    • Moving into a property already supplied by Good Energy
    • Contract renewal · We take steps to identify if your business meets the criteria using the information available to us. We encourage our customers to let us know any extra information that will help us with making an assessment.
  • We’ll take steps to ensure clear and transparent communication
  • If we’re unable to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks or if the complaint reaches the stage of deadlock, you have the right to refer it to the Energy Ombudsman.
  • Good Energy will only work with brokers that have signed up to the Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme, ensuring you can access support if you have a complaint about how your broker has handled your sale or renewal.
  • (Microbusinesses only) We won’t back bill you for energy used more than 12 months ago, excepting where we’ re not at fault and if a customer has been obstructive to our attempts to provide an accurate bill.
  • (Microbusinesses only) Guaranteed standards of service payments if we fail to resolve a meter fault you’ve made us aware of.
  • The full detail of protections available to micro and small business customers are outlined in your terms and conditions and signposted on our communications where relevant.

If you have any questions about the information on this page, you can contact us at hellobusiness@goodenergy.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help.