Over 80% of Business Owners Fear Business Energy Bills Increase

A new survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit has revealed that over 80% of British firms expect energy and fuel prices to rise sharply and almost 50% have great concern that the UK could face serious business energy shortages within five years.

The survey interviewed more than 210 executives of various sectors and despite fears of a sharp increase in their business energy bills, these business owners also demonstrated great interest in smart meter and microgeneration technologies as a means of mitigating against rising energy bills.

Seven out of 10 ten firms stated that they have either deployed or are in the process of deploying smart meters in a bid to monitor and reduce their energy usage.  Interest in microgeneration technologies is also growing at a fast pace specially after the recent introduction of the government’s feed-in tariff incentive scheme, more to that on a future post.

Although only 13% of respondents said that their company currently uses microgeneration systems such as solar panels or small-scale wind turbines, 42% said they have plans in place to deploy the technology.

Moreover, nine out of 10 respondents said they have a concrete energy efficiency target in place for this year, with the majority planning sizeable improvements of up to 10%.

To help businesses across the land enhance their energy efficiency even further and reduce their carbon footprint, the Carbon Trust released a guide aimed to help firms measure their carbon footprint as well as help them understand where they use the most business energy and help them lower their usage, resulting in cheaper business energy bills for them.

For years now, energy consultants and energy industry experts have been pledging more investment for a better low carbon energy generation infrastructure.  If we add that to the anticipated increase in the cost of carbon through the EU carbon trading scheme and growing global energy insecurity, UK energy prices could rise well above the inflation over the next decade.

To sum things up, the survey which interviewed senior executives from the British private and public sector revealed that energy is now a major business risk for UK businesses, with more than half of those surveyed insist that the government should treat energy security as its top business priority over the next five years and those who don’t carefully rethink their business energy efficiency will be left behind.

We would like to hear your opinion now.  Should the government prioritise Britain’s energy security over other areas of the economy?

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1. [...] Over 80% of Business Owners Fear Business Energy Bills Increase In Uncategorized on June 22, 2010 at 10:11 am via catalyst-commercial.co.uk [...]

   Pingback by Over 80% of Business Owners Fear Business Energy Bills Increase « UK Energy Broker — June 22, 2010 @ 10:11 am

2. Business Owners Fear Business Energy Bills Increase…

   Looks like the day of cheap energy is over again, with prices going up daily at the moment, things are not looking good. Both the short and long term markets have started to increase lately….

   Trackback by social.weehz.com — June 23, 2010 @ 12:10 am

3. Over 80% of Business Owners Fear Business Energy Bills Increase…

   Looks like the day of cheap energy is over again, with prices going up daily at the moment, things are not looking good. Both the short and long term markets have started to increase lately….

   Trackback by socialwebcms.com — June 25, 2010 @ 7:36 am

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