With the Energy Bill Relief Scheme set to end on 31 March 2023, some convenience store operators are set to see electricity bills quadruple. According to the Association of Convenience Stores – ACS, “Convenience stores are facing electricity rates of upwards up 90p per kWh from April 2023 when the current supported wholesale price expires. For the convenience sector, this equates to a total bill of up to £4.3bn, an average of over £88,000 per store. This could be three to four times what retailers were paying in 2021.”.

It makes for a period of very difficult trading ahead, but just what can shop operators do about it? Firstly, all those in the convenience sector are being urged to join the ACS campaign by contacting their MP. There’s more info about that here https://www.acs.org.uk/campaigns.

Secondly, when bills are rising, the only thing you realistically have control over is your energy usage. So just where can you cut back? You need lighting, you need technology, you need heating, you’re a convenience store, so you need to be open all hours. Feels tough, doesn’t it. But there are savings to be made.

One of the most prolific areas of energy use in convenience stores is refrigeration. It’s reported that as many as 50% of convenience stores operate open refrigerators. If you’re one of them, then DoubleCOOL could save you up to a massive 60% on electricity usage of your fridges and chillers with our retrofit acrylic fridge door solution.  You can verify the statistics with convenience store operators, in real-life situations in our case studies section. https://doublecooluk.com/case-studies/

Find out how much of a saving you could make by entering your store’s simple statistics into our energy saving calculator https://doublecooluk.com/#energy-savings It’s a great guide to assess the reduction in energy usage that could be achieved. A much better guide is DoubleCOOL’s Zoe Colman. She would love to talk to you about the specifics of starting your energy-saving, cost-cutting, retrofitting DoubleCOOL fridge door mission.

Whether the Energy Saving Bill Relief Scheme comes to and end at the end of March, or not. Fitting DoubleCOOL will be an investment that will cap your convenience store’s electricity usage, well into the future.

Sources:

https://www.acs.org.uk/press-releases/thousands-local-shops-risk-without-long-term-energy-support

https://www.acs.org.uk/news/forecourt-report-2022-retailers-investing-efficiency-and-services-despite-ongoing-challenges