“Energy’s a big expense across the whole site. The nature of the village means there’s never any down time here. Heating, laundry, cooking – we’re a 24/7 operation. We have tight budgets to work with, which is why I need to get the most effective price for our utilities.”

But securing that ‘effective price’ is easier said than done. With an ever-changing and complex energy market and so many other things competing for his attention, Stuart’s often stretched. That’s why eight years ago, he turned to Eneco for help. He’s been using them ever since to support him in managing his gas and electricity contracts.

Stuart isn’t tied to Eneco, yet he continues using them year-after-year. He admits he gets daily calls from other companies that want to take over his energy purchasing but he’s not tempted to move away from Eneco’s services.

“I stay with them for two main reasons – the cost savings and the personal side of it,” explains Stuart. “The Eneco team is a small one and I personally value relationships. My account handler is usually at the end of the phone. If she’s not, someone else in the team is. St George’s is a big and complex site, knowing the individuals in the Eneco team and knowing they know me and this site – that’s important to me.”

“Getting people who can understand the site’s complexity is our biggest issue. I like that Eneco understand our system and how it works. They are only down the road from me, in Brighton, so they’ve been here on several occasions and I’m in Eneco’s offices once every couple of years,” says Stuart.

One of the first things Eneco did when coming onboard was to harmonise all the meter end dates – saving Stuart time and St George’s Park money.

Tash Forster, Account Manager at Eneco Consulting

Eneco’s account handler for St George’s Park, explains: “Just think about how long it takes to find and put in place an attractive fixed rate deal for anything – a credit card, your mortgage. That’s what St George’s were having to do for each of their gas and electric meters. Each meter had its own energy supplier, rate, and end date for renewal.

Keeping up with some 45 meters is tough, finding the best rate time consuming, and falling outside your negotiated fixed rate period, inevitably expensive.” So Eneco umbrellaed all the meters under a single contract to align their end dates.

“Once we got the end dates altogether it became much easier to manage,” says Stuart. “We know exactly when those end dates are coming. And, because they are bundled, we’re able to take more volume to the market, we get a better rate.  It lowers our costs because Eneco can secure the best rates in advance for us to lock-in to.”

In addition to finding and securing the best annual deals with energy providers, Stuart also appreciates the value-added things Eneco Consulting does to help make his life a little easier. Things that crop up periodically, like metering issues or regulatory changes. He cites the government’s energy saving and opportunity scheme (ESOS), as an example.

“ESOS is a government scheme that required a survey of all our meters and usage. The idea was to identify ways to save energy and money. You weren’t under an obligation to implement any measures, but you had to have the survey. Eneco helped me with that and we did actually implement a few things. It’s not always quick and easy to make changes when you have residents in situ, but we’re changing to LED light fittings and I think there’s a good chance we could put photovoltaics on the roof in the not-too-distant future.”

With no sweetheart deals in place with energy suppliers, Eneco has helped St George’s Park secure the best rates from 12 different suppliers since 2012.

In the last two years alone Eneco has helped St George’s Park secure savings of £13,000.