Negotiate your own energy tariff

This article is really brief but hopefully, it will lead to something bigger. I realised long ago that people will pay different amounts for services and goods which are essentially the same. This could be based on a number of factors, location, market price, offers and variance in currency.

We keep hearing that switching provider can lead to better rates, tariffs and deals for those of us willing to take the step and actually change our current providers. Also, even the merest mention to our current providers that we intend to switch to a better deal, whether it be insurance, cable/satellite tv, mobile and broadband will usually mean an improved offer to your existing agreement.

So switching energy providers can also save us money, we know this, but this is something people seldom do. Whether we see searching for deals and comparisons (even though there are loads of websites and advice available) as to much hassle, I don't know. Even following up the big leads via Martin Lewis (consumer champion and deal finder extraordinaire) seems to fill us with a spot of serious contemplation and non-committal.

Sorry, I will keep it short. There I was lying awake at 2 am the other night, not able to sleep, I know we've all been there, slumberless. Then I thought, ENERGY and then COSTS. There is no logical reason why these thoughts came to me.

It's well known that energy providers block buy, they then distribute energy to us, consumers, at what is said to be the market price. Obviously, this is all based on what we use and the profit margins they wish to make. So my thinking in this tiresome state was, well, what if I could negotiate my own cost per kW, based on my current usage, what deal could I get if I block buy. Before I even imagined the answer another thought entered my head, my friend has solar panels and sometimes he sells the surplus back to the grid, what if I could buy his surplus and use it for myself. Now I could actually negotiate with him, get a cost that could be reasonable (mates rates so to speak).

But how? Just before returning to the nocturnal slumbers the last thing that I thought of was, how could this be done, a peer to peer arrangement perhaps and through what type of technology, Blockchain? zzzzzeee  

So now it's morning and I'm at work, during midmorning coffee I mention to a colleague that perhaps we should be able to buy our own energy and not necessarily from the big energy companies but from each other, perhaps we could use blockchain technology. After a quick google search, it seems those thoughts from my slumberless night are in fact already a reality.

Check this out GREEN RUNNING and here is a product that will hopefully be available soon to help us manage our energy usage, verv.

Here's to another sleepless night.