NGP review of the highlights of 2020
The business world demonstrated its resilience in 2020. Business leaders used their foresight to make swift and shrewd decisions to secure their long-term futures. Often a major overhead for businesses, a popular decision for firms has been to review their energy behaviour.
We’ve been privileged to work with thousands of businesses to help with their energy requirements, providing our expert advice and guidance as firms looked to position themselves favourably for 2021.
Let’s have a look at what happened in 2020 at Northern Gas and Power.
Our Customer-First Ethos
The biggest focus at Northern Gas and Power has been to further support our existing client base and new onboarded customers. Businesses of all sizes rely on our services to help them navigate an ever-changing energy market. We onboarded almost 10,000 new businesses in 2020 alone, offering our specialisms in energy procurement, energy management, metering and monitoring technologies. Much of our existing client-base was able to save on energy costs by capitalising on market trends, with the help of our energy advisers. We’ve been quick to give our guidance during the challenges presented in 2020. We supported around 20,000 customers, saving thousands on their bills and helping them reduce energy waste. Since the start of the year, Northern Gas and Power have contracted almost 15 TWhs of energy – more than the entire annual consumption of Tunisia! Our group, which spans three continents, manages well over 30 TWhs of energy in total.Our ethos is to build strong, lasting relationships with our customers – helping them to grow and succeed, which in turn helps us to grow our teams, resources and expertise, constantly improving the quality of our customer-focused services.
Covid-19 Outreach
During Covid-19, we implemented swift operational changes to our workflow. We invested in technology to facilitate remote distributed teams which offered our clients energy expertise as normal, from home. We reached out to local community, supporting charities, schools and care homes. We went the extra mile and offered our Legal, Finance and IT departments to businesses who needed additional support during the initial UK lockdown.
BusinessEnergyQuotes.com
In February, we launched BusinessEnergyQuotes.com, designed specifically for the UK SME market. BusinessEnergyQuotes.com is a new, online business energy cost comparison service, tailored to open the energy market up to small and medium businesses.
With over 21 business energy suppliers, including “Green Only” providers, the platform gives UK businesses more choice than ever before in the industry. And with access to the Smart Grid, BusinessEnergyQuotes.com uses accurate consumption data from business meters to provide the fairest and most competitive business energy tariffs – an industry first.
ClearVUESystems.com
2020 saw the launch of ClearVUE Systems, a new, online energy management technology proposition based on the vision of our CEO: transforming the way in which businesses interact with energy.
ClearVUE Systems provides world-first, live-streaming, multi-parameter energy Metering, Monitoring and Targeting (MMT) software. It has developed a range of non-intrusive hardware, sensor and IoT metering solutions. ClearVUE Systems’ centralised, secure, cloud-based data network allows businesses to instantly access energy data that would previously take months to compile – at a fraction of the expense.
Data is always streamlined and simplified – with detailed options always available, designed for maximum user benefit and control; it provides businesses with comprehensive analytics that allow them to control and cut their energy consumption and cost, helping firms move towards net zero.
Community Outreach
As the year progressed, we maintained our commitments to our community by continuing with our corporate social responsibility. To date, we’ve already donated tens of thousands to worthy charities across the UK, working with a variety of incredible causes.
We’re honoured to be in a position to give back to our community. We’re proud of the work we’ve been able to help with and we’re excited about how we can support charities in the future.
Expansion
The consistency of the hard work of our team at Northern Gas and Power and across Global Procurement Group has put us in a fortunate position. We had a stable platform to build on our next wave of expansion. We were able to take our global headcount from 550 to over 700 in 2020. But it doesn’t stop there. The projected global headcount for 2021 is over 1,000 heads.
RIGA
The ambitious growth plans of Northern Gas and Power mean that office space is frequently filled. We’ve outgrown five offices since our inception, and now, it’s time to move again. In early 2021, we’ll be moving into our new, purpose-built global waterfront HQ – a 30,000 sq ft facility named RIGA. Working with partners Tri Construction, Avison Young UK and AMH Workspace, we’ve built an exciting, vibrant workspace – designed to bring harmony to our NGP Family’s work-life balance.
Internally, the bar has been set extremely high, using state-of-the-art equipment, materials, seating, sound systems and screens. A central feature of RIGA is the ground floor ‘Feel Well Deli’, providing a completely different kind of café-experience. ‘Feel Well Deli’ will be serving up a variety of freshly prepared meals. And after work, fresh, nutritious meal boxes are available for staff who do not feel like cooking at home.
In collaboration with Tri Construction and AMH Workspace, the interior design sets completely new standards in quality, including a Zen-Zone with bespoke, ergonomically crafted seating areas to give its people a choice of spaces to enjoy downtime together. A ‘living’ wall and range of natural plants bring the outside, inside and help create a full sensory experience. Next to The Zen-Zone, an immersive Gaming area is complete with PlayStations, Xboxes, VR gaming, pool tables and foosball, to keep break times exciting and enjoyable.
Recognition
This year has seen further awards and recognition for the business, building on our success when crowned Consultancy of the Year in the Energy Awards, and the fastest growing company in the North East by legal firm Ward Hadaway. In addition, our CEO, Fu, won the Ernst & Young Rising Star Entrepreneur of the year.
This year success has continued with Fu’s personal accolades going even further, after being heralded as The UK’s Most Ambitious Business Leader in the Telegraph and LDC’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders. He was also named the Great British Entrepreneur’s Northern Scale Up winner in the summer.
The company has also performed well, being a finalist in the Lloyds Business awards, and being placed top in the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Profit Track for the North East region and 2nd across the entire UK. We’ve also been recognised by Glassdoor for our commitment to a healthy Work-Life balance, placing 2nd in the UK – finishing above the likes of Sky and Google.
Ambition
For Northern Gas and Power, ambition is key for businesses going into 2021. It’s vital for businesses to keep driving forwards – to create more jobs and more opportunities.