A Year in Review and a Year Ahead: 2024 set to be an exciting and rewarding year for TEC and its members

A Year in Review and a Year Ahead: 2024 set to be an exciting and rewarding year for TEC and its members

Adam Clarke, Managing Director of TEC 

Wow! 2023 proved to be another action packed, and at times, challenging, year. It has also been an engaging and fulfilling twelve months for me in my first full calendar year at TEC. Tough trading conditions coupled with managing necessary Government intervention in the market, certainly kept everyone at TEC, along with our members, on their toes! 

Looking back over 2023 there are a few stand-out highlights for me. Through this last year we have seen growth of over a third in the number of meters we are now managing on behalf of members. Welcoming new members during an energy crisis and seeing how our team expertly worked with and supported all members through the energy industry’s most challenging times has been a real highlight.  Our trading desk at TEC proved to be very agile and responsive to tough market conditions, paying dividends to the membership. Responding to, and at times firefighting, changes in energy billing support provided a great opportunity to spend time with members enhancing the reporting the sector needed.  

Take-up of our Water Framework offer has continued to grow through the year and the addition of  bill validation services has been very well received across the membership.   

I’m delighted to say that we were much more proactive with our member communications in 2023. Keeping the membership increasingly informed of market updates has helped members and their stakeholders to keep abreast of energy market developments and tighter control of energy budgets. 

The year was rounded off at our annual conference, which demonstrated the true value of simply getting everyone together in person under one roof. There are some things you just can’t achieve on Teams! Some fantastic knowledge sharing showcasing decarbonisation in action along with shining a spotlight on some of the value-added services that TEC already provides – such as bill validation, water and energy waste management – were some of the key highlights.  

Looking ahead to 2024, I am genuinely excited about what promises to be an exciting period for the TEC membership. We will be announcing several new services and products during the year to support our members to further support energy procurement, energy risk management and energy decarbonisation. Key to this will be the expansion of our carbon reduction services focusing on the decarbonisation of the electricity and heat we consume across our estates.   Put simply – delivering solutions for reducing Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions. TEC will be building upon the work undertaken in the second half of 2023 to identify and deliver the carbon reduction solutions and routes to market that members want. This will be supported by the continued growth of our bureau and data services which will ensure we continue to monitor and keep on top of members’ needs. 

Energy management continues to be the best way of cutting demand and reducing carbon emissions. A reminder to all members that you can take advantage of the services provided by kWIQly, which uses clever AI diagnostics to identify and reduce energy waste. Going forwards, we will be grouping members together with similar characteristics and looking at how we can learn from one another. This reflects a growing theme to support the sector to collaborate more effectively whether it be on energy procurement, sustainability, or decarbonisation. 

As I write we are just finalising our new Framework and the partners within it, which I am confident will offer members a greater level of service than ever before. We will continue to support the membership with industry leaders from across the electricity, gas, and water sectors. 

Finally, a heartfelt thank you from me to all our members for their continued support and engagement. I am always impressed with the passion and commitment of all the individual members I meet, and combined with the expertise of TEC, I really think that together we are a force to be reckoned with. 

Energy continues to be a challenging and exciting landscape and working together we have proved that we can accomplish so much more.  Whilst the path to net zero remains uncertain, lets continue to collaborate, learn and challenge each other to achieve all we can for a brighter and more sustainable 2024.