Case

Powering faster, fairer energy switching for consumers and business

Case

Powering faster, fairer energy switching for consumers and business

Smart DCC partnered with Netcompany to design and deliver Ofgem’s Faster Switching Programme, transforming a lengthy, failure-prone process into a fast, reliable service.

5 days maximum switch time after go-live
1 day fastest potential switch time
272 million records migrated

The challenge

For years, Britain’s energy customers faced slow and unreliable supplier switching. On average, switch times took almost a month and almost a third of attempts failed due to fragmented legacy systems, manual processes and common issues such as address mismatches. This meant consumers found it difficult to part ways with their energy suppliers, even if their tariffs were high and customer support poor.

To remedy this, the energy regulator, Ofgem, tasked Smart DCC with delivering the Faster Switching Programme (FSP), a £475 million transformation to redesign the end-to-end switching journey across gas and electricity.

Smart DCC needed a partner that could coordinate more than 150 industry parties, manage in-life regulatory and market change, and safely deliver a full, “big bang” industry cutover without disrupting supply for millions of households and businesses.

»The challenge was not just to make switching faster, but to do it in a way that the entire market could trust from day one,« says Tim Derville, Principal at Netcompany, who worked on the project. »We were operating at the heart of critical national infrastructure, with no margin for error.«

Smart DCC by the numbers

28 days

Average switch time before programme

153

Industry parties supported

800+

Industry stakeholders engaged

Solution

Smart DCC selected Netcompany as the sole Systems Integrator (SI) for the Faster Switching Programme, making us responsible for design, testing, data migration, transition and assurance across the full industry landscape. As the coordinator of 153 suppliers and more than 800 stakeholders, we followed a milestone-driven delivery model, ensuring decisions remained aligned with Ofgem’s governance, the new Retail Energy Code (REC) and DCC’s tough security and clearance requirements.

To handle the scale and regulatory complexity, we implemented a single integrated programme plan – updated and shared weekly – giving all parties clear visibility of progress and potential problems. Best‑practice PMO functions and RAID management help manage 443 formal milestones and over 150 in‑programme changes, while dedicated single points of contact coordinated delivery with each service provider and maintained a tight feedback loop with Ofgem, DCC and industry forums.

Hosted in a secure UK‑based Azure environment, more than 200 security policies governed identity, data protection, network controls and monitoring. This was supported by automated deployment pipelines and strict release management to minimise risk and ensure repeatable, auditable change. A comprehensive testing and simulation strategy supported the one‑day, big‑bang changeover.

Netcompany also invested in long‑term capability and knowledge transfer. The team captured documentation as the project progressed, creating a blueprint that DCC can apply to future programmes and ensuring a smooth handover into live service.

»Our priority was to give DCC, Ofgem and the market confidence that the switch over would work first time. The combination of governance, domain expertise and rigorous testing meant we could keep the programme moving even as the wider environment changed around us.«

Tim Derville

Principal at Netcompany

Results

The Faster Switching Programme went live in July 2022 with a single‑day, nationwide changeover, successfully migrating 272 million records into the new switching ecosystem and bringing every supplier onto the new service at once. The new system immediately cut switching times from an average of 28 days to a maximum of five days, with the capability for next‑day switching as regulations evolved.

From the outset, energy suppliers reported a significant increase in the rate of consumers switching supplier, reflecting higher confidence in the speed and reliability of the new service. In the period since go‑live, consumers and business owners have faced volatile energy prices. But the faster and more reliable switching arrangements have given them a practical way to respond.

Since go‑live, Ofgem has introduced a temporary price cap for default tariffs as a safeguard for disengaged consumers, while leading a series of programmes and projects to improve market operation and consumer outcomes, in which the Faster Switching arrangements have been central and critical enablers.

»What we’re seeing now is the real prize,« says Tim Derville. »Faster, reliable switching is helping households and businesses navigate price volatility, while giving regulators and suppliers a platform they can build new protections and innovations on.«

Netcompany’s performance during delivery led to its retention as switching SI for live operations, where it continues to support Smart DCC with ongoing performance management, in‑life change and a pipeline of optimisation initiatives.

»This was never just a technology upgrade,« says Tim. »FSP has reshaped how the energy market operates – with faster, more reliable switching as a foundation for greater competition and innovation.«