Micro businesses
See the definition of a micro business and the standards set by Ofgem that offer protection
What's a micro business?
You're a micro business if:
- You use less than 100,000 kWh of electricity a year OR
- You use less than 293,000 kWh of gas a year OR
- You have fewer than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent) and your yearly turnover, or yearly balance sheet, is not more than two million Euros
Micro business protection
See the standards, rules and guidelines set out by the energy regulator Ofgem, to help support and protect micro businesses.
Your energy plan
When you agree a new energy plan, suppliers are required to:
- Let you know the key terms of the plan before you agree to it
- Send you the contract and terms and conditions within 10 days including renewal terms for fixed term plans
- Include the contract end date and the last date you can leave on your bill if you have a fixed term plan
Your energy plan
When you agree a new energy plan, suppliers are required to:
- Let you know the key terms of the plan before you agree to it
- Send you the contract and terms and conditions within 10 days including renewal terms for fixed term plans
- Include the contract end date and the last date you can leave on your bill if you have a fixed term plan
What happens when your energy plan is ending
Help with renewing, or switching energy supplier
- If you have a fixed term plan, you'll receive a renewal reminder around 60 days before it's due to end explaining your options. This should include your current prices, new prices and annual energy consumption to make comparisons easier
- To cancel your agreement you'll need to provide just 30 days notice before the contract end date
- Your leaving notice should be confirmed within five working days of receipt
- It can take up to 21 days to switch energy suppliers. In most cases it’s earlier, or you can request a later start date
What happens when your energy plan is ending
Help with renewing, or switching energy supplier
- If you have a fixed term plan, you'll receive a renewal reminder around 60 days before it's due to end explaining your options. This should include your current prices, new prices and annual energy consumption to make comparisons easier
- To cancel your agreement you'll need to provide just 30 days notice before the contract end date
- Your leaving notice should be confirmed within five working days of receipt
- It can take up to 21 days to switch energy suppliers. In most cases it’s earlier, or you can request a later start date
How to compare business energy
You could find a cheaper deal
Comparing and switching energy supplier or tariff is straight forward and could help you save money on your gas and electricity bills. See our guide on why you should look at other deals and how to go about it.
How to compare business energy
You could find a cheaper deal
Comparing and switching energy supplier or tariff is straight forward and could help you save money on your gas and electricity bills. See our guide on why you should look at other deals and how to go about it.
Standards of Performance
How we book and keep appointments
Ofgem's Standards of Performance offers micro businesses certain guarantees if we miss or cancel an appointment with less than one working days' notice.
Standards of Conduct
Treating micro businesses fairly
Standards of Conduct is a licence condition that requires all energy suppliers to treat customers fairly with regard to billing, energy contracts and switching.
The key principles
- To operate in a fair, honest, transparent, appropriate and professional way
- To provide information to customers that is complete, accurate, easy-to-understand, relevant and fair
- To provide a transparent and complete customer service
Back-billing
What are the back-billing rules?
Ofgem has set out back billing rules to help with problems caused by receiving a 'catch up' gas or electricity bill.
If you have a complaint
We want to sort things out quickly for you
We'll make every effort to get your complaint sorted within a day of getting it. But, sometimes it can take a little longer.
If you're a micro business and we haven't been able to sort things out within 8 weeks, or we can't agree a way forward with you (we call this ‘deadlock’), you have the right to pass your complaint to the Ombudsman Services: Energy.
The Ombudsman is there to help sort out disputes between energy suppliers and their customers. Their service is free to use and they're totally independent – they don't take sides and their decisions are based only on the information they have.