Origins

City Energy Network was originally created as ‘City Energy South Wales’ to alleviate fuel poverty. The name was originally chosen to reflect the passion for its Welsh home and community. When realising that strong support was available through the Government’s Fuel Poverty schemes at the time, it sparked a commitment to form a company that would focus on its community by delivering a sustainable service and energy saving products to local residents. In particular, the company founders saw Wales’ rural communities being left behind, with the most vulnerable residents unable to afford to heat their homes or indeed keep them warm due to non-existent insulation. A major challenge in the first three years was cashflow although forward planning by the company founders enabled the business to change and adapt with this severely changing landscape while maintaining excellent client relationships and most importantly successfully retaining staff.

Success Factor

2015 saw the introduction of revised legislation affecting the grant funding of energy efficiency products through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), a programme within which City Energy was already firmly established. Changes within the legislation opened up potential business opportunities for the company, its supply chain and partners and in response to the impending changes at the time and the company wasted no time and expanded its services from being a grant funding managing agent to becoming an installer of insulation and heating products, beating the competition by once again proving its innovation and early adoption of change. City Energy Network’s founders and directors are also exceptionally skilful at developing and maintaining long lasting relationships and the company prides itself on ensuring it meets client and partner needs, securing their trust in their ability to delivery on time, on target and on budget. Finally, City Energy recognises that delivering the highest quality of service is essential to the permanence of any organisation in today’s highly connected world. Its company culture focusses on ‘Getting It Right First Time’, regardless of the area a person may work in. The directors understand that the firm is only as strong as its weakest link and ensures that all areas receive the support they need to operate at their best. Throughout the adversity and especially the rapid growth in recent years, the firm has increased its investment in quality monitoring, exceeding that of many of competitors, which has assured clients, partners and customers of the ongoing commitment to them, their safety and the high quality of their work.

The Future

City Energy Network are looking forward to the next five years and expects them to be a little less volatile for the industry while retaining the focus on disruptive innovation. After an initial five years (2013-2018) of embedding quality assurance and customer satisfaction into the industry, government is updating the rules which will bring a more stable environment for the business, partners and clients and assuring long term trusted relationships of continuous development. The firm will continue to secure its place within the energy efficiency industry as the grant funding partner of choice through the Welsh Government’s ARBED scheme and will support its partners in the delivery of renewal energy solutions across Wales with additional attention paid to the development of the “Pay As You Save” ECO Top Up loan. Finally, the next five years will see City Energy Network to strengthen its smart metering teams across the country with a particular focus on its Welsh Home.