ConsumerPool

How to make best use of consumer power to get a good price in the electricity market? In summer 2010, economics students Manuel Ronnefeldt, Julius Kuhn-Regnier, Paul Müller, Jonas Haut and Philipp Zentner planned to switch energy providers; a previously abstract problem was suddenly reality. About 70 percent of Germans have never switched utility providers and therefore pay too much for energy. The idea behind ConsumerPool is to encourage individuals to use their combined consumer power and thus to save money. 

Ideally, ConsumerPool helps you to reduce your gas and water bill by up to 400 Euro per year. If you change over to green electricity you reduce CO2 emissions by about 3 tons, which is equivalent to planting 150 trees. Ronnefeldt: "We suggest people switch energy providers not individually but as a group and as such negotiate better rates." On their website the four initiators "rally" people willing to switch. "The first round yielded 600 registrations, 200 of those willing to choose green energy. In other words: we invited tenders for a total of 500.000 kilowatt hours. This should induce energy providers to offer reduced rates," so Kuhn-Regnier.

ConsumerPool operates in several steps: stage one is for pooling customers. Then this pool is closed and another opened. Tenders are invited for gas and electricity required by the customers of the first pool, and the most favourable offer is accepted. Ronnefeldt explains: "Our own input consists in having clarified in advance that there will be no problems in switching; in the case of green electricity we check the tangle of quality certificates and eco-labels and select only those providers who actually support the development of renewable energies."

Prices negotiated by ConsumerPool are not necessarily the most competitive ones for Germany. Many providers lure prospective customers with discounts, but beware of traps. "We also offer the option of an annual switch of providers; but for some clients this is too much change, so we do not get the best possible rates. But in the long term we offer a highly competitive rate that is transparent and fair and not subject to numerous conditions which providers like to impose on new clients in return for favourable rates."

Interested? Just register with www.ConsumerPool.de. One week after the end of the auction customers receive a negotiated contract and decide whether to accept or not. The actual switching is then arranged by the new provider. Kuhn-Regnier: "One good thing about the German market is that utility providers are bound by law to deliver. Nobody is left in the dark or without heating in winter. The worst-case scenario for prospective switchers is that they go on paying the former rates if the contract with a different provider falls through."

See the homepage of ConsumerPool.