Last year we took part in 10:10, an initiative designed to help householders and small businesses cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 10%. Well in excess of 100,000 of our customers signed up to take part – and this initiative is just one of the many ways we’ve continued to help our customers save energy.

Our spring TV advertising campaign saw the launch of Energy Fit. This campaign was designed to explain energy efficiency in a way that would make it meaningful. Anyone who signed up received a Free Energy Fit Starter Pack – containing an energy monitor to enable an instant view of electricity usage, as well as the ability to track changes over time. This offer has been hugely popular with well over 280,000 packs requested by the end of the year.

In addition, our monitor was recently named as a Best Buy product in Which? - receiving the highest possible marks for its accuracy. The device also scored excellently for its quality of information. *

In a similar campaign for our Business customers, spring 2010 marked the launch of our Business Energy Manager. Including a free Energy Monitor and software to track and raise awareness of energy usage, this package also offers business customers advice on whether their current tariff offers them best value. By the end of 2010, we received 6,000 requests for Business Energy Manager.

We also completed a trial of our Smart Metering programme during 2010. Working closely with Kettering Borough Council, we challenged around 500 households to reduce their annual energy usage in return for a payment of up to £100. Through a programme of education and reward, this trial was hugely successful, resulting in over 60% of households meeting their target to reduce energy usage by 5-10%. Not only were these households rewarded financially, but the benefits of energy efficiency were reinforced further with each household making an average saving of £109 from their energy bills.

We were also given an official Government backing for carbon offsets in both of our Green Tariffs - GoGreen for residential customers and Easy Green for Businesses under the Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting, which was set up by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Carbon offsetting involves calculating a carbon footprint and then investing in a project that reduces greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere by an equivalent amount. The DECC scheme assists in the identification of the best offsetting options that genuinely help to protect the environment. We’re the only major energy provider supplier to offer an accredited green energy product for small to medium businesses.

Another focus for 2010 was to adapt our propositions to meet the changing needs of our customers. This led to the release of our first online product targeted towards the Age UK market, combining cold weather payments and welcome gifts with the savings and ease of online account management.

We continue to offer a range of products for our vulnerable customers – WarmAssist discounts from energy bills alongside a programme of free energy efficiency advice and measures. During 2010, we helped our WarmAssist customers with thousands of pounds worth of free energy efficiency measures.

We were one of only two of the ’Big Six’ suppliers not to increase any of our standard energy prices during 2010. Over the first half of the year our FixOnline tariff was the cheapest dual fuel offer. **

*(Which? Best Buy, Energy Monitors. January 2011)

**Cheapest Dual Fuel product at OFGEM average consumption (annual electricity consumption of 3,300kWh and average annual gas consumption of 20,500kWh) when paying by Fixed Monthly Direct Debit and managing account online.