This is a guest post by Kayla Ente – Director of Brighton and Hove Energy Services. If you have a project or business that is working towards the Brightoneers vision and would like to submit a guest post, please get in touch.

Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative Ltd is an energy supplier run as a social enterprise. We apply our expertise in energy efficiency and renewable energy to help
people take action to reduce their energy costs. Because we do not distribute dividends
to our shareholders, we can reinvest our profits back into the community, improving our
collective quality of life.

We do this by offering a three tiered programme of energy services:

• By gathering thousands of people together in collective buying, we offer discounted prices on electricity and gas,
• For no upfront payment, we conduct energy assessments, prepare energy plans and undertake retrofits, lowering energy consumption,
• We finance the installation of renewable energy micro-generation where economically attractive and suitable to the property. The more micro-generation we install, the more leverage we have against rising costs due to increased wholesale prices of fossil fuels.

We are especially targeting vulnerable people, those people who are currently paying 20%
more on their energy bills because they are on prepayment meters. We want to take over
these relationships from the energy suppliers and provide these people with a lower price
for their heating and electricity. We are also interested in retrofitting draughty, thermally
inefficient properties occupied by vulnerable people. Approximately 25,000 people die
each year from winter cold. As energy prices increase, more people struggle to keep warm
in the leaky homes that are especially prevalent in Brighton and Hove.

We are looking to the community groups to spread the word around about us to their
members, to help us identify and provide assistance to those most in need.

You can support us by registering your interest in our service on our webpage.

Please contact us if you would like more information about our new, revolutionary
community service at info@bhesco.co.uk.