Business Energy for Catering Companies

Refrigeration, which catches most operators out. Monitoring of fourteen UK commercial kitchens found refrigeration took 41% of kitchen electricity, more than any single piece of cooking equipment, because it runs every hour of the year while cooking happens in bursts. Cooking took the other 59%, led by fryers at 14%, combination ovens at 12% and grills at 12%.

On your profile, not on an average. Consumption that swings with an events calendar while refrigeration holds steady is a specific shape, and suppliers price it badly when they are guessing. Where you have readings taken every half hour the pattern shows outright; where you do not, an honest account of your season gives them something real to work from.

More than most people expect. In that same study the least efficient kitchen used 118% more electricity per meal than the most efficient, 3.32 kWh against 1.52 kWh. That gap is equipment, settings and habits rather than menu, which means a good part of it is recoverable without changing what you sell.

On food safety grounds the question does not really arise, but it is worth knowing it is a significant load, and that it sits on top of refrigeration that is already 41% of kitchen electricity. The gains come from loading chillers properly, keeping door openings short and making sure condensers are clean rather than from running them less.

If peak demand reaches 100kW it is a legal requirement. Plenty of kitchens get there once you add refrigeration, cooking and extraction together. It is worth having rather than merely tolerating: half-hourly data lets a supplier price the load you actually have instead of an assumed profile.

20%, in almost every case, plus the Climate Change Levy, because this is business premises. The reduced 5% rate applies only at very low consumption, which a working kitchen will exceed comfortably. We confirm your position as part of the comparison rather than leaving you to find out from the first bill.

Fixing locks the rate, not the volume, so a variable order book is not in itself a reason to avoid it. You still pay for what you use; you just know what each unit costs. For most caterers that predictability is worth more than trying to time the market.

Yes. Multiple sites can move onto one supplier with a single renewal date, even where the current contracts all expire at different times. It cuts the admin and the combined volume usually sharpens the rate.

Yes. Renewable tariffs backed by REGO certificates are widely available and now often priced in line with standard ones, so the premium that used to rule them out has largely gone.

Around four to six weeks from agreement to go-live, with no interruption to supply and nothing to change in the kitchen.