Sheffield City Council secures a transparent and trusted partner for gas supply

The requirement

Sheffield City Council’s gas supply contract was due for renewal and they wanted to ensure
they were getting the best value out of the way they purchased gas. It was the ideal time to
complete a retrospective price review and look at how they buy energy to create more
transparency.

The council also wanted to improve account management so they could feel confident of
receiving prompt support from their chosen partner when needed. Sheffield City Council
contacted our regional customer experience team for help to complete a market
assessment. Having a local approach to customer engagement across the local government
sector allows us to be more focused on where help is needed. We were quickly able to give
Sheffield our full support and attention.

Gas supply is a major cost for the council. Continuity of supply is important to ensure
services continue to be delivered particularly during periods of uncertainty. The year of the
COVID-19 pandemic brought this into sharp relief.

The solution

Our Supply of Energy and Ancillary Services agreement lot 3 Natural Gas and ancillary
services were set up with a focus on efficiency and value. The agreement delivers great
prices through the aggregated buying power of the government.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) worked closely with Sheffield City Council to support their
benchmarking activity. Energy industry expertise and advice was provided by John Moors in
our energy category. Phil Hodgson from our regional customer experience team provided
bespoke account management support.

We completed a thorough review of the council’s gas supply cost for previous years. We
compared the performance of their current provider against historical data and considered
general market performance. This gave a transparent opinion on how CCS and the
incumbent had performed during this period when compared to market trends.

At the same time, we considered what might happen with future energy supply and the
customer appetite for risk exposure. In this way, we’re able to make confident predictions on
the best buying approach for the council and the schools it supports.

At all stages, we listened to the customer to understand what they needed from a future
relationship so that we could agree on a support structure that was personalised to their needs.

We played an active role throughout the review process over several months. Through
weekly meetings, we helped Sheffield City Council address needs such as:

● achieving value for money
● delivering a transparent buying strategy
● providing enhanced support and account management

This information was critical for the council’s leadership team to make an informed choice.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team of experts continued to communicate through
video conferences to ensure a successful conclusion to the project despite a rapidly evolving
working environment. We worked flexibly to support the customer’s timeline, agreeing on an
approach that suited their needs.

The results

Buying energy can be extremely unpredictable due to the number of factors that need to be
considered. Our analysis clearly showed that the CCS buying strategy had outperformed
Sheffield’s incumbent supplier for the same period by 21%. Our approach gave us
confidence that having outperformed the market in previous years our recommendation
would perform favourably for the council and local schools.

To monitor buying performance and service delivery, we established a bespoke approach for
the council. This means that Sheffield can be confident of how it manages and buys its
future gas supply. As well as our industry-leading performance reports and energy category
team support, Sheffield City Council has a named account manager and can look forward to
regular review meetings and fast efficient help and advice when it’s needed.

We’ve helped to ensure that the councils buying strategy is fully transparent and compliant
with all government energy buying requirements. At the same time, the council can look
forward to a value for money service that is well supported with robust risk management in
place.

Our approach is completely driven by customer needs and Sheffield was able to benefit from
our flexibility during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CCS provided a professional customer support function throughout the process. Through
regular contact they were always on hand to answer queries and provide advice which
enabled us to make key decisions within tight timeframes.

Chris Trotter, Energy Manager

Sheffield Council has a large energy portfolio so it’s important for us to have confidence
we’re getting good value from our buying strategy. CCS helped us to better understand
market drivers and how we could save money buying gas through their agreement. They
provided a great deal of insight, which gave us the confidence to work with them, and we
have ongoing support we can call upon when needed.

Sian Holmes, Interim Head of Procurement and Supply Chain

The Council was looking to renew their gas contract and having identified the possible
routes to market, the Council reached out to CCS to further explore the CCS gas framework.
CCS provided invaluable support and advice throughout the process as well as
benchmarking the best possible market price. The CCS team were quick to understand our
needs and were ready and able to support the Council throughout the procurement process.
The resulting contract will help deliver crucial savings to the Council over the coming years.

Sarah Rani, Procurement and Supply Chain Manager (Energy Category)

Get help to save money for energy supply

Make smart buying decisions for the supply of energy with our Supply of Energy and
Ancillary Services agreement (RM6011).

To learn how our agreement can support you, view our web page or complete our online
form and our team of commercial experts will be in touch.

Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.