BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 75

Energy Costs

In Wave 75, businesses not permanently stopped trading were asked about reducing their energy costs – the specific question asked is shown below. 

Energy Cost question: What actions, if any, has your business taken to reduce energy costs in the last three months?

• changed to more energy-efficient building equipment
• changed to more energy-efficient process equipment
• undertaken a desk-based energy audit
• undertaken an on-site energy audit
• reduced or simplified goods or services        
• reduced the number of days the business trades in a week by one day
• reduced the number of days the business trades in a week by two or more days
• reduced the number of hours the business trades in a week, but the number of days the business trades in a week remained as usual
• switched electrical equipment to standby or off more than usual when not in use
• switched energy suppliers
• temporarily closed a business site
• other
• not sure
• business has not taken action to reduce energy consumption

Note that the response options for this question were updated for Wave 75.  The following response options were added: "Changed to more energy-efficient building equipment", "Changed to more energy-efficient process equipment", "Undertaken a desk-based energy audit" and "Undertaken an on-site energy audit".  The following response options were removed: "Changed to more energy-efficient electrical equipment" and "Undertaken an energy audit".

Figure 5: Switching electrical equipment to standby or off when not in use (26.2%) was the action most frequently reported by businesses in the period 23 January to 5 February 2023.  In Wave 75, almost a third (33.2%) of businesses reported that they had not taken action to reduce their energy consumption.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 75

Businesses were also asked what actions they plan to take in the next three months to reduce their energy costs. Switching electrical equipment to standby or off when not in use was the action most frequently reported by businesses (19.7%).  An estimated 27.8% of businesses do not plan to reduce energy consumption in the next three months and 30.8% of businesses were not sure.

In Wave 75, business not planning to reduce their energy costs were asked about their reasons for this. The most frequently reported response options were that the business's energy efficiency is already optimised (46.7%) and that the business does not have the permission to undertake energy efficiency improvements in a rented property (11.9%).