The most expensive week to buy energy is the last week before your contract ends. Here is how to build a renewal timeline that avoids it.
Most businesses renew their energy contract in the final fortnight before it expires, which is the point at which they have the least leverage and the fewest options. Suppliers know a deadline is approaching, and the customer has no time to shop the market properly.
A better approach starts six to twelve months out. Most suppliers will price contracts that far forward, so you can secure a rate today for a contract that begins when your current one ends. That flexibility turns renewal from a deadline into a decision you can make on a good day rather than a bad one.
Start by recording two dates: your contract end date and your termination window. The termination window is the period in which you must give notice, and missing it is what pushes businesses onto out of contract rates. Put both in a diary that somebody actually reviews.
Six months before the end date, gather twelve months of consumption data and confirm your meter details. Three months out, run a full market tender. If prices are attractive, fix. If they are not, you still have time to wait and watch rather than accepting whatever is on the table in the last week.
The businesses that consistently pay less are not the ones who negotiate hardest. They are the ones who started early.