Case study
The Cause cut its standing charge from £4 to 50p a day
How a small Ayrshire staging company closed an auto-renewal trap and saved £3,832 over its three year term.
The Cause at a glance
The Cause was paying more in standing charges than for the electricity it used. We rebroked the supply onto a three year contract with a 50p daily standing charge, closed the auto-renewal exposure sitting on the account, and the saving over the term comes to £3,832.
Client overview
The Cause is a small Scottish business based in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, running a single operational site. The kind of property that doesn’t look like a candidate for a utility review at first glance. Their site uses approximately 650 kWh per year, about the same as a small home office. The business itself is a light and sound staging company supplying lighting, audio and rigging to live events, but the story below applies to any small business with a single low-consumption site.
The bill didn’t reflect that. Their daily electricity standing charge sat at £4.00 a day. That’s over £1,460 a year before they’d used a single kilowatt-hour. On a site this small, the standing charge was many times larger than the energy itself. The bill structure was upside down, and a previous broker had quietly embedded an auto-renewal LOA that would have rolled the contract over silently if no one was watching.
The challenge
Susan from The Cause contacted Clearsight on 4 September 2025, initially to look at the business water contract. The brief from her side was straightforward: she wanted someone to check whether they were being overcharged on water, and someone she could trust to help her make sense of an energy market that had previously felt confusing and high-pressure.
What we found alongside the water review was a much bigger issue on electricity. We found the standing charge sitting at £4.00 per day. Standing charges vary by DUoS banding, supply capacity and contract type, but the figure on The Cause’s account was high relative to what we were able to negotiate after reviewing the market for their specific site.
The second issue was structural. There was a digital auto-renewal letter of authority on file from a previous broker, which meant the contract could be renewed in Susan’s name without her sign-off and without disclosure of the new pricing. Left in place, she would have been rolled into another year of inflated charges automatically, with no opportunity to intervene.
How we approached it
Two parallel tracks. The water review went first, on the brief Susan had originally come in with. Once that was complete and clean, we turned to the electricity bill and the standing-charge problem, which turned out to be where the real money was.
The key insight on the electricity side was simple but rarely acted on. For sites consuming under 1,000 kWh a year, the daily standing charge dominates the bill. Procurement teams and brokers default to negotiating the unit rate because that’s where the savings live for big users. On a 650 kWh site, the unit rate is almost irrelevant. Every penny of saving has to come from the standing charge.
What we did, step by step
Reviewed The Cause’s existing water contract in full to confirm they were not being overcharged. Checked retailer margin, standing charges and any surface water drainage assessment against the actual site layout. The review came back clean. The water account was in order, which settled the question Susan had originally come to us with.
Identified a digital auto-renewal letter of authority sitting on Susan’s electricity account from a previous broker. By moving to a new supplier on a fresh contract, the prior LOA fell away at switchover and the new contract was set up on standard terms with no auto-renewal authorisation in place. It’s one of the least talked-about risks in business energy procurement, and one of the more expensive when it bites.
Ran a competitive market check specifically targeted at suppliers with the most competitive standing charges for low-consumption sites. A much narrower question than the usual “best unit rate” tender. Presented Susan with a like-for-like comparison showing daily standing charge, contract length, and total three-year cost.
Switch completed on 12 May 2026. New daily standing charge: £0.50. Contract length: 3 years fixed. Renewal alert set on the file for Q1 2029 so the next review starts before the contract rolls over. No silent renewals, no surprises.
The result, in numbers
The standing charge was the lever. The figures below are what changed when we pulled it.
| Measure | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily standing charge | £4.00 | £0.50 | −87.5% |
| Annual standing charge | £1,460.00 | £182.50 | −£1,277.50 |
| Contract length | Rolling / auto-renew | 3 years fixed | Price certainty |
| Auto-renewal exposure | Active LOA on previous broker | Closed at switchover | No silent rollover risk |
Total benefit over the 3-year term: approximately £3,832 in standing-charge savings plus a full review of the water contract, plus an auto-renewal LOA cleared off the account, which would otherwise have re-priced the next contract without anyone seeing it.
“Clearsight Energy and our contact Adam have supported us through stressful situations setting up new energy contracts for water and electricity. They made us aware of the potential pitfalls to look out for, particularly digital auto-renewal services, where the broker is given the right to sign contracts on your behalf without even making you aware of the £s you are contracting into.”
Susan, The Cause
Why low-consumption sites are different
Most business utility advice is written for businesses that use a lot of energy. The standard playbook (negotiate the unit rate, watch the commodity markets, time your contract to the wholesale cycle) works for sites pulling 50,000+ kWh a year. It barely applies to a site pulling 650.
| Feature | Mid-size business site | The Cause (low-consumption) |
|---|---|---|
| Annual consumption | 50,000+ kWh | ~650 kWh |
| What drives the bill | Unit rate (p/kWh) | Standing charge (£/day) |
| Where to negotiate | Commodity price | Daily standing charge |
| Typical broker focus | Unit rate | Rarely reviewed properly |
| Auto-renewal LOA risk | Significant | Severe. Small sites get less attention |
Key procurement insight
For low-consumption sites, meaning anything using under roughly 1,000 kWh a year, the daily standing charge is the bill. The Cause was paying £4.00 a day on a site that uses less energy than a domestic spare room. Almost every penny of the saving we delivered came from a single lever: negotiating the standing charge down to a level that reflects the actual size of the site.
The second lesson is the auto-renewal LOA. It is the most under-discussed risk in business energy procurement. If a previous broker has one in place, your contract can be renewed without your sign-off and without disclosure of the new rate. The first job of any utility review isn’t to look at price. It’s to check who has the right to sign contracts in your name.
What this means for similar businesses
If you run a small site (a studio, a small office, a charity premises, a holiday let), your standing charge is worth a proper look. The same logic applies to anyone who has worked with a broker before: check whether there’s an auto-renewal LOA sitting on your account.
Industry terms in this case study
- Standing charge
- A fixed daily fee on your energy bill, paid regardless of how much energy you actually use. On low-consumption sites it can be larger than the cost of the energy itself.
- kWh (kilowatt-hour)
- The unit of electricity consumption. A site at 650 kWh per year uses roughly the same as a small domestic spare room.
- Letter of authority (LOA)
- Permission to act on your behalf with energy retailers and wholesalers. Standard with any broker. A digital auto-renewal LOA goes further: it lets a broker sign a new contract in your name when the current one ends, without your explicit sign-off.
- Deemed contract
- The default tariff you fall onto when no contract is in place. Almost always the most expensive option available.
- Auto-renewal
- A contract clause or LOA arrangement that rolls you into a new fixed term, usually at the retailer’s discretion on pricing, if you don’t actively switch by a specific date.
The bottom line
The Cause is not a high-energy business. They were never going to make headlines on a unit-rate negotiation. By focusing on the right lever, the standing charge, and clearing out the auto-renewal LOA in the background, we turned a small, overlooked account into a £3,832 three-year saving and removed a hidden risk that would have cost more again at the next renewal. That’s the case study most brokers don’t write, because it isn’t glamorous. It’s also the one the next prospect like Susan needs to read.
Common questions
Why was The Cause paying £4 a day on standing charge?
The £4-a-day standing charge was a result of inherited deemed-rate pricing on a low-consumption site, combined with an auto-renewal LOA from a previous broker. Small, low-consumption sites are easy to overlook at renewal because the absolute savings look small. When the standing charge dominates a low-consumption bill, getting that line reviewed against what is currently available in the market is usually where any opportunity sits.
A digital auto-renewal letter of authority gives a broker the right to sign a new energy contract in your name when the current one ends, without your explicit approval and without prior disclosure of the new rate. It is the single most under-discussed risk in business energy procurement. If you have ever used a broker, the first thing to check is whether one is sitting on your account.
What is a digital auto-renewal LOA, and why does it matter?
A digital auto-renewal letter of authority gives a broker the right to sign a new energy contract in your name when the current one ends, without your explicit approval and without prior disclosure of the new rate. It is the single most under-discussed risk in business energy procurement. If you have ever used a broker, the first thing to check is whether one is sitting on your account.
Every site is different. Standing charges vary by DUoS banding, supply capacity and contract type, so there is no single “right” figure to aim for. What we would say is this: if your site is genuinely low-consumption and the daily standing charge looks high relative to your actual usage, it is worth getting a second pair of eyes on it. Whether there is a saving available depends on what you are currently being charged, what is available in the market for your specific supply, and the terms you are on.
Is this kind of saving realistic for other small businesses?
Every site is different. Standing charges vary by DUoS banding, supply capacity and contract type, so there is no single “right” figure to aim for. What we would say is this: if your site is genuinely low-consumption and the daily standing charge looks high relative to your actual usage, it is worth getting a second pair of eyes on it. Whether there is a saving available depends on what you are currently being charged, what is available in the market for your specific supply, and the terms you are on.
Published with permission
This case study is published with the consent of Susan and The Cause. Want your business featured? Get in touch
Is your standing charge bigger than your bill?
Send us a recent bill. We’ll review your account and tell you where you stand.