Energy Help and Advice

This section gives advice and information on energy issues for both households and small businesses. It will help you find out about the best energy deals and check on your consumer rights. We can also help you make an effective complaint to your energy company or use the Energy Ombudsman service.

If you have a complaint about your energy supplier you should contact them first. If you are dissatisfied with their response, your complaint should be escalated within the supplier in accordance with its complaint handling procedures. Unresolved disputes can be investigated by the Energy Ombudsman. Consumer Direct can also provide independent information and advice on how to progress your complaint.

For consumers who have been disconnected or threatened with disconnection, or who are unable to pursue their complaint directly with their supplier, Consumer Direct may refer the case to the Consumer Focus Extra Help Unit.

Measuring energy supplier performance

One of the core functions of Consumer Focus under Section 10 of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress (CEAR) Act 2007 is the dissemination of advice and information to consumers. One of Consumer Focus’s predecessor bodies, energywatch, published a monthly ranking of energy supplier performance to give consumers access to accurate and impartial information. This not only empowered consumers to make informed choices about their energy supplier, but gave companies incentives to continually improve their performance.

The introduction of the new arrangements for redress and complaint handling in the energy sector from October 2008 means that a fresh approach to evaluating company performance is required to enable Consumer Focus to develop meaningful and appropriate performance information to aid comparison and choice for consumers.

We asked you how best to measure energy supplier performance. Our decision document and chosen performance model are below:

Energy supplier performance consultation decision document (PDF 360KB)

Annex A – Benchmarking summary (PDF 37KB)

Annex B data model (PDF 28KB)

Consultation responses

Energy supplier performance consultation document (PDF 320KB) - January 2010