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12 | 13TH - 19TH NOVEMBER 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Interview cal. This process will select a couple of hundred domestic customers – from "hundreds and hundreds" who have expressed interest online – to "go live" and test the billing and trading systems, telephony and so on. To play it safe when putting these systems through their paces, Haigh says the Bristol will keep its offering "fairly vanilla" at first, but he's keen to innovate and offer a "fairer" range of products. As the company grows, these will reach out to business custom- ers as well as domestic ones, and will break the bounda- ries of the city too. Haigh says Bristol Energy will be open for business to anyone – but with a focus on the South West. The characteristic which Haigh says must link all its innovations and offers is a sense of "fairness" and "accessibility". And these words, which no doubt any supplier would say they subscribe too, must go more than skin deep. "Bristol's offering has to be distinct. We have no desire to be a 'me too' operation," says Haigh. Perhaps one of the most tangible ways in which this desire to be different will manifest itself is in Bris- tol Energy's plans for customer engagement channels. While popular consensus sees vast amounts of time and resources being poured into the development of digital platforms for customer engagement, Bristol is part of a small group of companies across sectors moving against the grain of online migration. It plans to open up shop in the physical world. Does this hark back to a heyday of electricity board high street presence? "Don't get me wrong," laughs Haigh, whose first days in the energy sector were also the last days of Yorkshire Energy Board, "we're not about to branch out into washing machines and fridges." The idea of opening up physical shops is based on a simple but persuasive argument that face-to-face com- munication is still the preferred option for many peo- ple when they are concerned or confused about issues that impact their day-to-day lives and – crucially – their finances. It's something the telecoms and banking indus- try have long realised, he says. While their online and mobile applications are all in place, physical branches still serve an important purpose. "The same could well be true of energy", asserts Haigh, and it could lead to a democratisation of switching, that key issue under the eye of the Competition and Markets Authority. He explains: "I saw some recent research, which showed that the propensity to switch is highest among those people who shop online at Ocado. I thought that was a fantastic piece of insight. I thought that's amazing. "But it isn't actually – when you think about the logic for it. The easiest way to switch is via a price comparison site. If you're shopping at Ocado, you're comfortable with using the internet – it kind of falls into place. "And then you think about the broad church that is 'customers' – those who don't have access to the inter- net, for whatever reason, those who have difficulty find- ing their way through all of the different tariff structures. When you think about that, you realise we have to do things differently in terms of open access. It is not fair to say we've got a really good offering for all these internet- enabled customers who self-serve and use paperless billing and pay by direct debit, but ignore this group of customers over here." Bristol Energy's physical shops could offer the option to switch via a face-to-face negotiation and to pay energy bills by cash – maybe even using the Bris- tol Pound as currency. Perhaps most importantly, though, Haigh emphasises that the shop will be a key means of delivering advice about energy usage, especially to the fuel poor. It's a back- to-basics approach which – although it will "come at a cost" – makes sense because it resonates with the company's social values and because "you'll have customers and potential cus- tomers walking through the door and you'll know, just from the fact they are there, that they're interested in talking about energy". All that said, Haigh is no Luddite. He's very aware that Bristol Energy is launching straight into a year in which a supplier-led national smart meter programme will begin. And although he admits that this is a some- what daunting prospect, he has high expectations of the transformative impact this technology will have on the energy market. "So oen the way that people pay for their energy, the linkage between doing something – putting the washing on – and paying for it is just lost. And that's not true with other things." Smart meters will reinstate this link and help suppli- ers have "adult" conversations with customers – Haigh says he is "passionate about treating customers like adults" – and allow them to have "informed choice and a fair choice". Haigh knows that getting customers to think posi- tively about this new world of choice will not always be easy – "you've got a whole range of views in customers' minds as to the benefits or otherwise of the smart meter" – and that the logistics of getting those meters into homes will be tough for a start-up, given that installer skills are at a premium. But still, he's fixed on the oppor- tunities. "The smart meter is the laser-scanning till of our industry. Before they existed, shops [only] knew that you'd bought stuff." So the smart meter will lead to the Tesco Clubcard of energy? That's right. Talking more broadly about the rapidly developing world of energy technology, Haigh shows himself to be adherent of demand-side response, and says today "we are only scratching the surface" of what is possible. As Bristol Energy grows in 2016, hopefully expanding its offering to businesses as well households and so gaining a broader portfolio of demand, it's an area he'd like to explore more fully. He's keen to work closely with local distribution operators and renewables developers to see what's possible. This openness to opportunity and to partnership is a thread that runs through Haigh's plans for Bristol Energy. With all its future before it, the company has a never-say- never ethos – even water provision, through partnership, might be a possibility come 2017. But is Bristol thinking big? Is it a threat to the big six? Haigh doesn't see it quite in those terms. "It's less about the height of the hill and more about the direction of travel," he says – in other words less about competition, more about playing a different game. "There is a general move in people's psyche – moving away from energy for a moment – which is to go local. That is a result of peo- ple thinking more about community, more about wellbe- ing, more about individualism where we all want to be special." Haigh sums up: "I can't think of any other commod- ity where there hasn't been a really meaningful attempt at differentiation." With local energy companies on the rise, that could be about to change. "The smart meter is the laser- scanning till of our industry. Before they existed, shops [only] knew that you'd bought stuff."