The Energy Consultancy Association is a new trade body, set up to act as a voice for Energy Brokers / Consultants. Different members of our team attended two of their launch events last month, one in London and one in Manchester to see what it was all about.
The ECA will be a member led trade body where energy brokers, consultants and aggregators pay annual membership fees to help fund its activities. Here is our take on membership…
Energy brokers and consultants get a hard time in the media and often have a poor reputation as a result. Less than transparent, sometimes unethical practices by some energy brokers over the years have caused the whole industry to be ‘tarnished with the same brush.’ As a tech business, offering energy aggregation services, we too, get tarnished with this brush. Our real life example of this: last month our business insurance premiums sky-rocketed simply because we’re categorised by insurance firms as ‘energy consultancy’ and therefore considered ‘high-risk’. This is despite us setting up with an objective of removing these malpractices; being ultra transparent about commissions (See: https://www.tickd.co.uk/howwemakeourmoney/) and never having received a complaint with the Ombudsman from the thousands of switches we’ve facilitated since inception.
One of the key principles of the Energy Consultancy Association is that the industry is stronger together. The majority of energy consultants are good people; doing the right thing, adding significant value to their customer. We know from experience, it is tricky to drag the energy industry into a better place alone (although we’re giving it a good go!). Could one aligned voice from energy consultants help provide a bit of ‘oomph’ to this journey?
Regulation of energy brokers is becoming more prevalent (and we welcome it). This regulation is being ‘put upon’ the market, rather than fairly consulted. A joined up trade body having a seat at the table to help shape these inevitable changes can only be a positive thing.
Since forming in 2020, our company values of 1) ‘shaking up an archaic industry’, 2) Dragging energy suppliers into the 21st Century and 3) Being ethical and transparent; probably say as much about our negative view of existing practices as they do our own goals of solving these issues with tech.
All in all, we’re in! Anything that we can do to support changes for the better in the industry, we’re keen to support. We’ve confirmed our membership and look forward to seeing where it takes us.
Perhaps the danger of the way the trade body is set up is that it could be a ‘flash in the pan’. Everybody attends these events with selfish interests (ourselves included) and organisations like this will only continue to be successful if the selfish interests of members are met. Will momentum be maintained once the founding committee’s objectives have been achieved? Our view is that maintaining momentum is a good challenge to have! Some momentum is better than none which feels like the current status quo. The indicator of true success will be whether the trade body continues to have a loud voice in years to come.
We look forward to getting actively involved to help build some of that initial momentum. Explore our energy broker platform today.
