Energy Switching down year-on-year in February but Price cap rise expected to spur an increase

The latest data released by ElectraLink has revealed that the number of consumers switching their energy supplier was down year on year in February but March promises to be a much more active month thanks to Ofgem announcing a rise to the energy price cap.

Energy Supplier Switching Down

Numbers set to increase

The data also showed that the number of switches beginning in February increased month on month by 616,000, a figure that is just 3% down on the previous year.

Typically, the number of consumers looking to switch their energy supplier increases in the spring as many tariffs and contracts come to their ends but no doubt the biggest driver for an increase in switches will be the increase of Ofgem’s energy price cap in April.

Also read: Ofgem Hikes Energy Price Cap raising Energy Bills to pre-pandemic levels

Drop in consumers switching from large to smaller suppliers

Breaking the trend that has been seen consistently over the last few months, February’s data shows that switching from larger suppliers to smaller companies decreased year on year and were at the lowest level seen since mid-2019.

Switching between larger suppliers meanwhile was up on an annual basis.

• Large to Large switches reached 253,000 – 4% more than February 2020 and 55% of February 2021’s total switches completed,
• Large to Other switches reached 91,000 – 26% less than February 2020 and 20% of February 2021’s total switches completed,
• Other to Large switches landed at 70,000 – 22% less than February 2020 and 15% of February 2021’s total switches completed,
• And Other to Other switches hit 44,000 – 19% less than February 2020 and 10% of February 2021’s total switches completed.

Also read: Energy Switching fell to lowest level since 2018 in January but Energy Price Cap hike likely to spur a rebound

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Further Reading

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