Birmingham-based supplier E (Gas and Electricity) has contracted Swedish energy monitoring company, Eliq to deliver its next generation mobile app which will enable prepayment customers to understand and manage their consumption habits.
The app is due to be made available to E’s smart meter customers this autumn and will send notifications when it is time to top-up.
E, which has acquired more than 200,000 of the UK’s six million pre-payment homes in the last four years, says its aim is to help customers reduce energy costs.
The app collects data from the home’s smart meters and will give customers access to their consumption history, weekly energy reports, alerts on consumption spikes as well as the ability to manage their account balance, payments and set budgets.
Chris Moses, programme director at E, said: “We chose Eliq as we wanted our customers to have the most useful and engaging digital experience in the market. Not only will our new app enable our customers to better manage their top-ups, it will aid them in reducing their energy consumption as well.”
Eliq says a “core element” of the new app is its intelligent forecasting mechanism which takes a customer’s historical consumption data along with current weather forecasts to determine how much gas and electricity their home will need.
The forecast will then generate recommendations and alerts on when to top-up the smart device.
Håkan Ludvigson, chief executive and founder at Eliq , said: “When we surveyed customers around the pay as you go (PAYG) user experience, we found that worries for black-outs and knowing when to top-up were the two main ‘pain points’ among customers – so we built intelligent forecasting to address both.”
Earlier this year E came third from top in a Citizens Advice energy customer service star rating table, behind Engie and So Energy.
In May it was alleged by industry regulator Ofgem that Economy Energy and E (Gas and Electricity), along with consultancy firm Dyball Associates, may have breached competition law.
Ofgem said the two energy suppliers, and Dyball Associates, had an agreement that prevented the pair “actively targeting” each other’s customers through face-to-face sales.
The case is being considered by Ofgem’s enforcement decision panel.