The challenge
As a manufacturer, Build Bloc carried the two costs that define industrial energy: a high, volatile commodity spend and significant non-commodity charges tied to its capacity. It needed a strategy that addressed both — the price of the energy and the structure of the connection delivering it — rather than a headline unit rate that ignored the rest of the bill.
Our approach
We gave Build Bloc wholesale market access, buying at trading-desk depth rather than at standard business-supply margins, and structured a flexible contract that let the business hedge its exposure with competitive trades instead of locking in a single fixed price. Alongside the commodity work, we ran a detailed kVA optimisation — right-sizing the agreed capacity so the site stopped paying for headroom it didn’t use — and managed a rapid new connection process to keep the site moving.
The result
Wholesale access plus capacity optimisation delivered a 28% cost advantage — around £240,000 — with the flexibility to keep managing exposure rather than being locked to one price.
“By understanding all our options we were also able to develop a strategy and hedge our exposure by using very competitive trades in a flexible contract.”
Build Bloc is a manufacturer — the core population the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme targets. The AND-rule and site-mix tests decide the band. Check BICS eligibility →
Manufacturer paying for capacity you don't use?
Wholesale access and kVA optimisation often move the whole bill, not just the unit rate.