Group Buying Comes to the Electricity Industry
There’s power in numbers. Its the simple truth. The more you have the more influence you can exert.
Well, a Dutch startup is taking group buying to the electricity industry by signing up consumers and then going to various local energy suppliers to get their best prices. I think that’s a fantastic idea whose time has come.
They plan on signing up 10,000 consumers – now that’s a number any company would love to have or fear to lose to its competitor. Consumers who participate in the scheme are allowed 30 days to review and respond to the offer.
The great thing about this is that for consumers there is nothing to lose. They sign up for free and use their collective purchasing power to get best offers from the top Dutch electricity companies.
The startup known as “Met De Stroom Mee” plans to approach the following energy companies: Nuon, Eneco, Dutch Energy Company, Dong, RWE, Electrabel, E. ON, Oxxio, Direct Energy and Essent.
The idea of collective buying is not new and even in the US, companies and groups have joined together to get better deals. One example is the Nonprofit Energy Alliance that worked with Clean Currents to negotiate the cost of wind power electricity supply for 16 non-profits. They’ve reportedly saved $76,000 over a 2 year period and purchased 2,800 Megawatt hours (MWh).
Another US example sis the “Philly Buying Power” where local businesses in the city of Philadelphia can group together to purchase their electricity needs.
Both of the above examples are limited to non-profits or businesses and the Dutch startup has gone beyond that to individual consumers. In the age of Facebook, Twitter and all sorts of rapid communication through websites, emails, and live chat, I believe, its an easy and low-cost way to get a group together to jointly purchase all your gas and electricity needs whether its conventional or green, wind or solar – its time to move in this direction.
Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding, and everything related to groups working together for the common good are doing well these days. Its a throwback to ancient times when we use to be in small tribes looking out for one another. Good natural concept. So are you going to form a collective purchasing group for your electricity needs today?