Benefits Statement 2025/2026: Delivering financial value to members in a challenging energy market

Benefits Statement 2025/2026: Delivering financial value to members in a challenging energy market

Over the last year, the energy market has been dominated by uncertainty and volatility, combined with increasing market complexity. Against this backdrop, TEC’s annual Benefits Statement has demonstrated significant financial rewards for participation in TEC’s frameworks. For the fifth year running TEC members have enjoyed a double-digit return on investment – despite a reduced overall energy spend.

We sat down with Marc Brook, TEC’s Bureau Services Manager, to delve deeper into the 2025/2026 Benefits Statement and explore how members can make deeper consumption and cost savings.

How has TEC been able to deliver an increased return on investment for the fifth year running?

Our members have seen the average return on fees increase from £12.12 to £18.74 for every £1 spent on utilities – despite a reduced overall energy spend. Once again, this reflects the power of group buying and TEC’s procurement strategy in a volatile market. Total cost avoidance from participation in TEC’s frameworks also rose an impressive 49% over the last year to £8.5m. These savings have been achieved against a backdrop of greater market complexity, highlighting the Framework’s value in protecting members from variations in supplier margins and TPI charging.

Within the Energy Bureau, we have continued to work with our suppliers, challenging when we need to and collaborating on key elements, to provide a continual improvement to processes and delivery.

How has the TEC Water Framework been so effective in supporting members to reduce water consumption and costs over the last year?

Water was another success story of this year’s Benefits Statement. Water savings against default wholesale charges increased from £1.1 million to £5.6 million across the TEC full portfolio. With water wholesalers increasing their costs significantly over the last few years and water scarcity becoming an increasingly important issue, members have turned their attention to reducing consumption. TEC has responded by making water consumption and billing data more accessible, helping members identify areas of high usage and opportunities to cut consumption. Some of our members are also taking advantage of the ancillary services available such as leak detection, Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Water Contingency, providing greater insight into usage patterns and helping them to take targeted action.

In addition, 19 new members joined the Water Framework over the last year, benefitting immediately from an average saving of 5% against default contact terms. Working with our framework supplier Wave, TEC has also supported members with successful challenges on some historical charges too, helping to make further cost savings.

How has an improved Energy Bureau service helped deliver an even stronger Benefits Statement this year?

Over the last year, the Energy Bureau has adopted a ‘Right First Time’ approach and pushed this out to our suppliers, strengthening data quality, focused reporting requirements, and bill validation turnaround times. We strive to ensure that bills are as accurate as possible when they reach members with any anomalies already identified and addressed. We have also upgraded the Monthly Billing Pack – providing institutions with their consumption and billing data in one comprehensive report.

With ongoing restructuring and redundancies across the sector, it is increasingly important that members understand the range of services that Bureau delivers. We recently uncovered one case of a member paying £20,000 a year to an external company for services already available to them through the TEC Framework.

Given the continued increase in non-commodity charges, how can TEC members reduce energy consumption and costs?

Whilst some non-commodity costs are fixed and unavoidable, others are volumetric and charged on a time of use basis. These time of use costs are at their highest between 4-7pm on weekdays between November and February, therefore reducing consumption at these peak times will significantly reduce costs.

It is also important to understand what your consumption profile is at a meter point, so that you then build on implementing efficiencies and projects. Some of these could be simple routine changes, like switching processes to run overnight when energy prices are cheaper or by implementing bigger schemes such as solar installation or heat networks. Finally, we strongly advise members to set up an energy working group to ensure that cost, carbon, and consumption reduction goals are shared across your institution. There is more information about this in the Members Area of the TEC website under Resources – or you can ask your MSA to help.

How can TEC members maximise the benefits of TEC membership?

In a word – engagement. The more members take advantage of all the services, guidance and events TEC provides, the more they will get out of their membership. Feedback and two-way conversations are also key to helping us to shape and improve the services we provide. Our webinar programme also provides valuable insights into specific energy and carbon topics, supporting members to reduce energy consumption and costs.

The most important thing I’d urge members to do is ensure that they attend our forthcoming Annual Conference – a fantastic opportunity to improve knowledge, share experience and engage with the TEC team and their sector peers.

You can register for your complimentary place at TEC’s Annual Conference ‘The Era of Volatility, the Value of Control, here

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your Benefits Statement, please get in touch with your Member Services Advisor.