Energy & Utilities Insights
Insights
Actionable insights for the sector's most pressing topics
Challenges like rising debt, sustainability targets, and regulatory reforms are driving suppliers to fundamentally rethink how they operate. At the same time, these shifts present opportunities to differentiate, drive innovation, and enhance customer service. As organisations attempt to balance financial performance with compliance and customer satisfaction, staying ahead of competitors is crucial.
Leveraging the deep expertise of our industry specialists, we help energy and utilities providers to tackle these challenges, and capitalise on opportunities shaping the future of the sector.
INSIGHTS
Energy & Utilities
Why leadership development should start with the business, not the classroom
Leadership development delivers its greatest value when it starts with business priorities rather than training needs. In the first article of our series, we explore five principles that help organisations turn leadership capability into measurable business performance.
Digital leadership in networks: what’s required to close the commitment–delivery gap
If your regulator asked you today to walk them through the connection between your digital investment portfolio and the operational outcomes you have committed to, how confident would you be? Not in the narrative. In the evidence. Not in the next price control, but right now.
Domestic energy debt reaches £4.79bn as the intervention gap widens
Domestic energy debt has reached a record £4.79bn, but the bigger story is how the policy landscape has changed. We explore what the indefinite pause to the Energy Debt Relief Scheme, the July price cap increase and growing levels of unmanaged debt mean for suppliers and the industry's next steps.
Reimagining the Energy System Part 2: Making Digitalisation a Core Capability
To rapidly, and sustainably, deliver future-proof networks we need to embrace, and exploit digitalisation, in all its forms, across the energy sector. Three themes stand out for us.
When process improvement isn't enough - Identifying operating model challenges
Process fixes work well if a problem is confined to a specific team. But when issues are spread across multiple areas, ownership is unclear, and improvement efforts aren't sticking, the problem is structural.
Ways to reduce the ~£100m cost of metering aborts
Abort rates have long been a challenge across the metering industry, but the overall cost often receives less attention. Our analysis suggests the annual cost of aborted metering activity could be costing ~£100m per year.
Metering and Field Roundtable: Views from senior industry leaders
At a recent metering and field roundtable, we brought together executives from across suppliers, metering providers and field service organisations to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the industry.
Why digital investment isn't hitting the mark for regulated networks
Networks are investing billions in digital transformation, but how much of that investment is translating into operational performance and delivery confidence?
33% fewer businesses switched supplier in April as uncertainty grows
Business switching activity fell significantly below historic levels in April 2026, with around 33% fewer non-domestic customers changing supplier than the seasonal average. This insight explores what the latest switching trends may tell us about customer behaviour, market uncertainty and the importance of early engagement during renewal periods.
Small businesses renewing contracts in 2026 face a £480 increase in annual electricity costs
Our latest analysis suggests a typical SME could face a £480 (14%) increase in annual electricity costs when renewing contracts in 2026. We examine the scale of the increase, the drivers behind it, and why renewal conversations are becoming increasingly important for suppliers and customers alike.
The SME Energy Gap: Small businesses pay 31% more per kWh
Our recent analysis shows that low-consuming businesses are now paying 31% more per kWh than larger industrial consumers.
Why ‘Right Side Up’ innovation wins NIA and SIF funding
A practical guide to why network innovation proposals succeed or fail, and how innovators can better align NIA and SIF applications to the operational realities, customer needs, and priorities of individual networks.
Energy & Utilities
Meet the Team
Ian Barker
Managing Partner
Ian shapes the BFY vision and inspires our team to bring it to life, while remaining central to complex client engagements in Strategy, Commercial, and Operations.
Rachel Littlewood
Partner
Rachel leads our operational and financial turnaround engagements, helping to solve complex operational challenges while maximising commercial performance and customer outcomes.
Kelly Payne
Director
Kelly helps clients achieve operational excellence to improve customer outcomes, employee engagement, and optimising cost to serve.
Kevin Scott
Director
Kevin leads client engagements with a laser focus on empowering clients to navigate large-scale events and market challenges.
Energy & Utilities
Our Impact
Strategic analysis identifies ~£103m in opportunities for energy retailer
We delivered strategic analysis for a large energy retailer, identifying up to ~£103m in incremental revenue opportunities, through a comprehensive Market Scan Analysis and Sales Channel Maturity Assessment.
Cash recovery initiatives deliver ~£275m benefit for large Energy supplier
Our debt team supported a large Energy supplier with recovering their cash position, achieving a total benefit of ~£275m through collaborative initiatives.
£8.5m cash collection for large energy retailer
We helped a large energy retailer to generate immediate in-year debt benefits through tactical interventions. Our programme delivered ~£4.5m in Bad Debt benefit and ~£8.5m in cash collection, all while maintaining customer and productivity measures within the operation.
Large energy supplier avoids ~£7.5m in complaints costs
We supported a large energy supplier with a transformation programme, looking at how they can manage their complaints inflow and address the growing backlog. The programme transformed their complaints capability and resulted in ~£7.5m in cost avoidance.
Collections improvements deliver ~£5m cash for Water retailer
We supported a B2B Water retailer with a series of collections improvements, achieving a cash uplift of ~£5m in five months.
Tactical debt improvements deliver ~£7m cash for large Energy retailer
A large Energy retailer was facing significant challenges with customer debt, requiring improvements to their collections processes to mitigate this. Their total debt was ~£100m at the time of engaging BFY, with communication gaps present across the customer debt journey.
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