Electricity and gas for farm buildings, grain drying, dairy equipment, and cold storage. Annual energy contracts are one of the highest-value, lowest-effort procurement wins available to UK farms. Most have never put their energy contract out to tender. The price difference between renewal autopilot and competitive procurement is significant.
Farm electricity consumption ranges from modest on an arable unit to substantial on a dairy — grain drying, refrigeration, electric fencing, lighting, water pumping, and increasingly EV charging for farm vehicles. The annual electricity bill on a dairy unit with automated milking can easily reach £40,000–80,000. Yet most farms renew their energy contract on whatever their current supplier offers, adjusted for the prevailing market price, without a competitive process.
The energy supply market for business customers is genuinely competitive. Multiple suppliers are actively writing agricultural business. The difference between an auto-renew price and a competitively tendered fixed contract for the same consumption profile is typically 10–18% on electricity and 8–14% on gas. On a £50,000 annual electricity bill, 14% is £7,000. Achieved in one competitive process, contracted for two to three years.
Electricity for all farm meters — production buildings, dairy, grain stores, cold stores, residential. Gas and LPG for farm buildings. Grain drying gas is included where consumption is above the threshold for business tariffs. Each farm's consumption profile is specified individually — consumption history, meter reference numbers, and contract expiry dates. The pool aggregates for market leverage; individual contracts are placed with each farm separately.