The number of electricity switches between suppliers has fallen to a new all-time low as soaring wholesale prices continued to limit consumers’ choices.
Electralink’s latest figures show just 91,000 switches were completed in May, down from the previous all-time low reported in January this year of 94,000.
Last month’s figure is 78% less than the same month in 2021 and 29% less than April this year.
So far this year 517,000 successful switches have been recorded – a fifth of the number of switches between January and May 2021.
“May is traditionally one of the lowest months for new changes of supplier (CoS) events, potentially because it usually has two bank holidays. However, this was not the case this May due to the long Platinum Jubilee weekend,” the company said.
Based on the number of switches started in May, Electralink’s analysts predict approximately 93,000 CoS will be completed in June.
In terms of switching types:
- Large to large switches fell to 44,000 – 7% less than April 2022 and 48% of May 2022’s total CoS completed
- Large to other switches dropped to 26,000 – 31% less than April 2022 and 28% of May 2022’s total completed
- Other to large switches numbered 14,000 – 30% less than April 2022 and 15% of May 2022’s total
- And other to other switches decreased to 8,000 – 66% less than April 2022 and 9% of May 2022’s total CoS completed
Elsewhere in the sector, trade body Energy UK has also released record-low switching figures for May which reveal a similar number of completed switches.
Energy UK has previously said that discrepancies between the two sets of figures likely arise from differences in their definitions of switches, including when they are judged to have been completed, as well as the way they are reported.
In total Energy UK recorded around 92,300 – a decrease of more than 38,000 compared to April and a 78% fall compared to May 2021.
In May 2022, of all switches:
- 9% were from larger to small and mid-tier suppliers
- 15% were from small and mid-tier to larger suppliers
- 48% were between larger suppliers
- 28% were between small and mid-tier suppliers