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
Today’s Retail Energy Market Framework is Broken: What Needs to Change?
The UK energy industry has made impressive progress on clean energy. Renewable generation is up, carbon emissions are falling, and the political commitment to a clean power system by 2030 is clear. The retail market that will deliver change in customers’ homes and businesses was designed for a different time and is no longer fit for purpose.
Webinar recap: Navigating the B2B energy reset
Insights from our B2B energy webinar with Gorilla, featuring panellists from BFY Group, Gorilla, and Drax Energy Solutions.
Private Capital, Public Outcomes: What EQT’s move tells us about the future of UK water
Recent investment into Yorkshire Water’s parent company is a strong signal that long-term capital still sees value in the UK water sector. In this article, Neal Edmondson explores what that means in practice, from how expectations on financial resilience and transparency are evolving, to what companies need to demonstrate to attract and deploy investment effectively.
MHHS: Where suppliers have opportunities for Commercial Success
As Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) migration begins in earnest, we’re examining the impact for suppliers. Our recent analysis shows 59% of supplier processes are impacted by MHHS. But that’s only half the story.
Myths, stigma and the future of prepay: In conversation with Utilita’s Louise Walsh
For this second summary article, we’re focusing on misconceptions, how technology is reshaping things, and Louise’s vision for what the future of prepay could (and should) look like.
Report: Demand better - A smarter, fairer energy retail market
In partnership with Energy UK, our latest report explores the feasibility of the transition today by gathering insights from across the sector to identify exactly where the framework is failing.
Energy debt rises again to £4.55bn, underlining gaps in current response
Domestic energy debt has reached a new high of £4.55bn in Ofgem’s latest update, rising by ~£63m in the last quarter and 18% year on year. Over 3.6m households are now in arrears, with the majority having no repayment arrangement.
MHHS will depend on embedded engagement - Our practical framework
Engagement is a critical enabler of MHHS success: with 59% of core process being typically affected by MHHS proactive engagement is vital to protect operational and customer confidence.
How to Tackle the Energy Debt Crisis. Thoughts from BFY, EDF, E.ON Next and Utility Warehouse
Why does energy debt keep rising, and who’s responsible for reducing it? We gathered industry leaders from EDF, E.ON Next and Utility Warehouse in our latest webinar to talk things through. The webinar recording is available but here’s a summary of the frank and insightful discussion.
Podcast: MHHS is live - Are we ready for what's next? With Elexon's Helen Adey
We have released the second episode of our Expert Interview series, exploring the shift from MHHS delivery milestones to the long-term operational reality of a new settlement world.
Preparing commercially for a pivotal year in business energy
We set the context for what’s changing in B2B energy and where commercial performance is now won or lost. We explore the pressure points emerging across pricing accuracy, product clarity, platforms and routes to market. We also outline why operational performance is increasingly a core commercial differentiator, as suppliers look ahead to a more flexible, service-led future.
Podcast: Preparing for the Future of Prepay with Utilita's Louise Walsh
We've launched the first episode in our Expert Interview series, where we sit down with senior leaders from across the utilities sector, starting with Louise Walsh, Chief Customer Contact Officer at Utilita.
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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