eGain a provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software, today announced that one of the energy companies in the UK has chosen eGain SelfService™. Scottish and Southern Energy Plc (SSE) will use eGain to further develop its customer service strategy, enabling customers to resolve queries through an online portal. Once implemented, eGain will help support the organisation’s growing customer base, further develop customer loyalty and lower overall support costs. SSE’s extended online presence and the introduction of new services such as e-billing has driven its organic growth, expanding its customer base from 4.5 million in 2004 to 8.5 million in 2007. In turn, the volume of customer enquiries has increased dramatically and SSE looked for additional methods of customer service to complement the telephone, e-mail and SMS options already available. John Evans, Senior Technical Architect at SSE comments: “We’ve experienced a steady but relentless growth in email volume; from 2,500 four years ago to 42,000 today. Having deployed eGain’s email management system in 2002, our customer service teams have been able to cope with this dramatic increase efficiently and effectively. However, we wanted to give our customers more options and further reduce the strain on our customer service team by introducing web self service technology. With the eGain Mail solution a proven success, it made sense to work with eGain to implement the next stage of our customer service strategy.” With a centralised knowledge base already in place with eGain Mail, eGain SelfService will enable SSE to offer its customers a new range of ways to access information in the common knowledge base including FAQs, search, browse, guided help and virtual agents. The software will provide SSE’s web customers with dynamic and intuitive service on the frontline, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Evans explains: “Our customer service agents currently have at least a 10-fold repetition with email enquiries. Encouraging more customer interaction through our website, the eGain self-service system can take away that repetition and free up our customer service staff to concentrate on more complex tasks. With the new web self service system, we are aiming for 20% email deflection. This will not only reduce support costs but shorten queues and improve the customer experience all round.” In addition, eGain’s self-monitoring feature automatically identifies knowledge bottlenecks through self-service usage analysis and user feedback, generating alerts and review tasks for appropriate content owners. The context-sensitive escalation provided by eGain SelfService will provide SSE with a continual record of each individual session, while escalating the interaction to an appropriate agent. In addition to the eGain SelfService, SSE is also upgrading its existing eGain Mail software to the latest version. The solution will be rolled out in SSE’s headquarters and its offices and is due to go live in July. Andrew Mennie, Vice President and General Manager, EMEA at eGain concludes, “In such a cost-competitive environment, customer service is a critical differentiator for utilities companies like SSE with such a wide spectrum of customer type and inquiry. Embracing the next generation of web customer service will provide the speed and accuracy of information that will enable them to reap cost benefits, increase customer retention and continue their growth as a business.”

The gas and electricity supplier npower today withdrew its cheapest online dual fuel tariff - the move was immediately hailed by analysts as further evidence that households across the UK can start planning for another round of price increases. Npower’s Sign Online 10 tariff had been the cheapest joint gas and electricity product in the market, and was aimed at customers switching supplier. The company’s new version of the same online tariff is around £83 a year more expensive than the one it replaced. With crude oil prices hovering around $120 a barrel - almost double the price of a year ago - wholesale gas and electricity prices have also been pushed upwards. Analysts have been predicting that domestic energy bills are set to rise between 10%, and a more likely, 25% over the next 12 months. Such a move would add another £180-190 to the standard average household bill, pushing it towards the £1,200 a year mark for the first time. “We don’t really talk about the online tariffs which can be withdrawn at any time,” said an npower spokesman. “There are no plans to increase the price for any of our other tariffs at the moment,” he said.

Householdsers could save millions of pounds on energy bills by using a meter capable of telling you how much your kettle costs to run. The Energy Saving Trust, which offers impartial energy advice claims Ealing residents could save £5.3m in energy bills each year with the installation of a Smart Meter. The trust wants the Government to put pressure on energy suppliers to offer their customers the meters, which show consumers the how much energy appliances in their house use, and what it costs. The trust’s research suggests eight out of ten people do not know what they are paying for gas and electricity. The meters would cost around £100 to £200 if mass produced. The trust says trials of the Smart Meter have shown they can reduce bills between five and 10 per cent.

Up to 100,000 households could be helped with their fuel bills under a deal agreed between the UK’s big six energy companies and the government. The energy firms have agreed to boost their collective annual spending on social assistance programmes by £225m over the next three years. Spending will go up from £50m in the past financial year to £100m this year, £125m in 2009-10 and £150m in 2010-11. The deal was brokered by Energy Secretary John Hutton. if all the extra money was used to offset bills it could remove up to 100,000 homes from fuel poverty, although fewer would benefit if it was spent on more permanent energy efficiency measures.  I do not underestimate the difficulties and anxiety that rising energy prices can cause. But consumer group Energywatch recently said social tariffs reached only one in 15 of the most vulnerable households. A home is judged to be in fuel poverty if 10% or more of the household income is spent on energy bills. The big six energy firms are British Gas, E.On, Scottish Power, Scottish & Southern, EDF, and NPower. “I do not underestimate the difficulties and anxiety that rising energy prices can cause but I believe that this extra cash, coupled with ensuring we have the most competitive market possible, will help us toward our goal of eradicating fuel poverty in the UK,” said Mr Hutton. The extra assistance will be targeted at households on low incomes which are most vulnerable to fuel poverty, including the elderly. In 2008-9, the government is increasing winter fuel payments to £250 for over-60s, and to £400 for over-80s. Earlier this week, two charities said they were taking legal action against the government for not doing enough to help people hit by rising fuel prices. Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged are bringing the joint legal challenge to end “the misery of fuel poverty”. All six big energy suppliers have announced significant price rises since the start of the year.  This move is very helpful but won’t, on its own, end fuel poverty. Peter Lehmann, former chairman of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group. Scottish and Southern Energy was the last to make the move with an average 14.2% increase in electricity bills, and a 15.8% lift in gas charges for domestic customers on 1 April. In early January, Npower put prices up for its electricity customers by 12.7%, while its gas price rose by 17.2%. EDF put up electricity tariffs by 7.9% and gas prices by 12.9%. British Gas increased gas and electricity prices by 15%. Scottish Power increased gas bills by 15% and electricity bills by 14%, and E.On put up gas bills by 15% and electricity tariffs by 9.7%.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced an aim to encourage the energy companies to increase social tariffs to £150m a year in the Budget. The deal with the energy companies runs up to 2011, but the government expects the assistance to continue at the level of at least £150m a year. “This move is very helpful but won’t, on its own, end fuel poverty,” said Peter Lehmann, former chairman of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, which has called on the government to better target money to help vulnerable households. Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at price comparison website USwitch.com, said the extra help was dwarfed by rising bills. “This is welcome but falls well short of the 500,000 additional households plunged into fuel poverty by the 15% increase to household energy bills this year.”

Utility giant e.on is set to steal a march on rivals with the imminent launch of smart meters in consumers’ homes. The energy company has announced it is in the process of installing 7,000 metersin the East and West Midlands in a pilot scheme, as part of “Energy Demand” a project run by regulator Ofgem and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The scheme follows a consultation undertaken by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) last year. BERR is expected to report its findings at the end of this month. Four of the “big six” energy suppliers e.on UK, EDF Energy, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power - are involved in the roll out. The Government has invested £10m in the scheme and it is understood that each utility company has also spent a similar amount. E.on, which claims to have invested £12m in the metering technology, says the roll out will give it “key learnings” on the benefits of smart meters in the residential market. An e.on spokesman says/ “When you can see and experience energy, you can also see how to save it. Smart meters will help these customers understand how much energy they’re using and encourage them to reduce their consumption and carbon emissions.” E.on launched its “see it and save” television campaign - which aims to make energy “visible” to its customers on March 13. The smart meters are being installed by e.on’s Energy Services business and are made by Ampy. Smart-meter technology measures consumption trends, giving consumers a clear picture of their energy usage. It provides two-way communication with the consumer and the energy provider, so meters can be updated to show accurate bills automatically. British Gas has unveiled its own brand of smart meters as part of its microgeneration product launch (MW last week). The meters are part of its New Energy division’s £900m investment in energy efficient technology.

Eco Gadgets

U.K. energy regulator Ofgem said Monday that 5.1 million customers switched gas and electricity suppliers in 2007, the highest level of switching in five years. Customers are switching in order to save money after all of the U.K.’s six major energy suppliers raised their energy bills this year, Ofgem said. Ofgem said customers who have yet to switch could still save on average GBP92 a year if they pay by standard credit, or rather by check or credit card. Customers could save even more if they also switched to cheaper payment methods, such as direct debit, Ofgem said.

http://www.home-save-energy.co.uk/

It will cost every household in the UK at least £2,000 to comply with the new European Union target of producing 15 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020, according to a report commissioned by the government. The report also says the UK will have to spend far more to meet the target than other EU countries, because the UK lags behind the rest of Europe on renewables and is a heavy energy user. According to energy consultancy Pöyry, the bill for the UK to meet the target would be at least €5bn a year for more than a decade, compared with just over €3bn a year for France and Germany, and well under €500m for most other countries. Energy companies are expected to pass on to consumers - who already face soaring utility bills - the costs of building the necessary wind farms, biomass plants and solar generators.

Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, says even these estimates are conservative, and fail to take into account the huge investment needed to connect new renewable and micro-generators to the national grid. A government spokeswoman admitted that meeting the EU target would be challenging, but added: ‘We must make these hard choices if we are to tackle climate change.’ Tomorrow, German firms Eon and RWE, Spanish-owned Scottish Power, and Scottish and Southern Energy will enter the government’s competition to build the world’s first large carbon capture and storage test plant. Centrica has already dropped out.

The UK’s first Energy Saving Day has ended with no noticeable reduction in the country’s electricity usage. E-Day asked people to switch off electrical devices they did not need over a period of 24 hours, with the National Grid monitoring consumption. It found that electricity usage was almost exactly what would have been expected without E-Day. Colder weather than forecast in some regions may have led to higher use of heating, masking any small savings. The event also received very little publicity, despite having backing from campaign groups such as Greenpeace, Christian Aid and the RSPB, and from major energy companies such as EDF, E.On and Scottish Power.  “I am afraid that E-Day did not achieve the scale of public awareness or participation needed to have a measurable effect,” said E-Day’s organiser Dr Matt Prescott in a message on his website. The Grid’s final figures showed national electricity consumption for the 24 hours (from 1800 Wednesday to 1800 Thursday) was 0.1% above the “business-as-usual” projection. The E-Day concept started life as Planet Relief, an awareness-raising BBC TV programme with a significant comedy element. But in September the BBC decided to pull the project, saying viewers preferred factual or documentary programmes about climate change. The decision came after poor audiences for Live Earth, and public debate over whether it was the corporation’s role to “save the planet”. Dr Prescott then decided to see whether he could mount E-Day as an independent operation, and secured the backing of important partners such as the National Grid and the UK’s major energy companies. They are obliged by the government to offer customers ways of improving energy effiency, and some used E-Day to contact people interested in loft and wall insulation. The event was launched on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in central London by Dr Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, who described climate change as a “moral issue”. “Let us remember people in the Ganges delta who are already feeling the effects of sea level rise and climate change,” he said. “The science changes year by year - though rarely in the right direction - but the moral imperative remains the same.” Dr Prescott had hoped E-Day might bring a small but measurable reduction in electricity use, perhaps in the order of 2-3%, equivalent to the output of one or two fossil fuel fired power stations. The idea was to demonstrate that numerous small personal actions could make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions. But, he acknowledged on his website: “E-Day did not succeed in cutting the UK’s electricity demand. “The drop in temperature between Wednesay 27 February and Thursday 28 February probably caused this, as a result of more lights and heating being left on than were originally predicted.” “I will do my best to learn the relevant lessons for next time.”

Give your house an energy-efficiency audit.

Answer a quick questionnaire on the Energy Saving Trust’s site.

1.  This has easy steps and can help you to search for grants. For a bigger plunge into eco-living, calculate your carbon footprint. For £49.95, you may want an energy monitor that makes you realise how much electricity each appliance uses.

2.  Switch to energy-saving bulbs, they cost £3.75, but last eight times longer than ordinary bulbs. The Energy Saving Trust says that replacing an old 100W bulb with a 20W green bulb should save you £7 a year: not much, until you add up the number of bulbs in your house.

3.  Insulate the easy way, Installing the recommended 270mm of loft insulation alone can save you £110 a year. It costs an average of £250 if you lay it yourself, and you should get your money back within a couple of years. If your house was built after 1920, a third of heating is lost through the walls. Cavity wall insulation can save you £90 a year: and costs about £500 for a three-bedroom semi.

4.  Draught-proof those gaps, another easy DIY task is blocking the cold air that passes around doors and windows. You can use self-adhesive foam strips, rubber strips, brush strips, which are useful on patio doors, and silicone rubber sealant, great for irregular gaps.

5.  Gauzy curtains and carpeted floor are back, which will help to retain heat. If you must have bare wood, timber floors can be insulated by laying mineral wool under the floorboards.

6.  Double glazing can cut heat loss by half, but fitting it is best left to the professionals. The most efficient windows carry the Energy Saving Recommended logo. Companies such as the Original Box Sash Windows Company (boxsash.com) can do this, but you may need new timber sliding sashes even if they are in perfect working order.

7.  About 40 per cent of water used daily in the home goes down the pan. A low flow toilet reduces this, and recycling systems for rainwater can cut mains water usage by half, according to Freerain.co.uk . However, the cost for a three-bed semi is about £2,245 plus VAT, fitting it a further £2,500. A garden water butt costs from £20 at Homebase.

8.  Trap the sun. Solar panels will heat up your water, but photovoltaic (PV) panels can convert the sun’s energy directly into electricity. Solar water heating systems cost from £3,200 to £4,500 to install, although DIY kits are available online from about £2,500 (see Solartwin.com). PV systems can cost between £7,500 and £24,000 to install.

Energy provider E.On is to increase gas prices by 15% and electricity prices by 9.7%, with effect from 8th February. The company is the latest of the big utility companies to increase their prices. It has blamed a 60% increase in wholesale prices since February for the price rise. But 670,000 vulnerable customers will have the increase delayed until 1st April, said the company formerly known as Powergen. The German-owned energy giant is the fifth big energy provider to announce double-digit rises, after similar moves in recent weeks by British Gas, Npower, EDF and Scottish Power.  Graham Bartlett, managing director of E.On Energy, said: “We realise the impact this price increase will have on our customers and we’re doing everything we can to minimise this. “Our announcement has been made in response to sustained pressures from the wholesale market. “We are offering a new product to allow more customers to join the half a million already benefiting from protected prices, while also helping those customers who are most in need.”

Big Six

The industry is dominated by the ‘big six’ energy providers.

• Rivals British Gas - the UK’s biggest power provider - increased gas and electricity prices by 15% in January.
• In the same month, Npower raised its electricity prices by 12.7% and its gas prices by 17.2%
• EDF Energy also put up its electricity tariffs by 7.9% and gas bills by 12.9%.
• Most recently, Scottish Power increased gas bills by 15% and electricity bills by 14%.
• E.On is to increase gas prices by 15% and electricity prices by 9.7%, with effect from 8th February.