Of the 8.7 million accounts we supplied at the end of 2003, 8.6 million were residential and SME customers, and 100,000 were industrial and commercial customers.

 

Residential and SMEs

The residential business had 8.1 million customer accounts at 31 December 2003, including 4.7 million acquired from the TXU Europe Group plc. The number of accounts in the SME sector totalled 500,000 at the end of 2003.

 

Of our residential and SME business accounts:

• 67% were electricity customers
• 31% were gas customers
• 2% were fixed-line telephone customers.

Individual retail customers who buy more than one product (such as electricity, gas or fixed-line telephone services) are counted as having a separate account for each product, although they may choose to receive a single bill for all the services we provide.

Industrial and commercial

Since the freeing up of the industrial and commercial market in 1989, Powergen I&C Retail has been one of the leading suppliers of electricity to UK industry and commerce and is also a major gas supplier. We ended 2003 with annualised volumes of 31TWh of electricity and 38TWh of gas.

Powergen I&C Retail leads the way in the industrial and commercial energy market by constantly striving to meet the changing needs of buyers and adapting to market developments. Our products and services are aimed at helping customers manage the complexities of the energy market by reducing costs and increasing efficiency within their business.

Sales in this sector are achieved by a variety of means ranging from traditional face-to-face account management through to online sales.