Npower has approximately 6.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, although RWE AG, npower’s parent company, reports that they serve 5.1 million residential and business customers in the UK. The 6.5 million number is reported by us, because RWE’s estimate has been live since 2012, and does not account for growth between 2012 and 2016.
We estimate that npower has grown their customer base by some 2 million since 2012, despite losing some 300,000 customers in 2015 due to billing failures.
This makes npower the third largest energy supplier in the United Kingdom. The biggest energy company in the United Kingdom is British Gas, who have over 20 million customers, while in second place is SSE, who have approximately 9.6 million customers.
Over the last three years, npower has refocused their core product offerings with an emphasis on residential energy. That is, energy for your home. Residential energy is a much larger market than business energy. We estimate that over 80 per cent of npower’s customer base is residential. To stand out, npower has offered a few unique products to customers, such as the Nest Thermostat and NOW TV bundles, which have enticed plenty of people to switch to npower.
Another thing npower has done is invest in their customer service infrastructure, by employing more customer service advisors in the United Kingdom.
It’s important to note at this point, that the energy industry is experiencing significant change right now. Independent energy suppliers, such as First Utility, Ovo Energy and Utilita, are competing against the biggest energy suppliers like npower and winning; they are taking customers off npower and the other big energy suppliers, by advertising better customer service, lower energy prices and fairer billing. If you are reading this article because you are considering becoming an npower customer, we recommend checking out the independent suppliers out there too, because they do offer excellent rates. That is not to say that npower are no good; on the contrary, they are a top supplier; however it’s always a good idea to do some research to find the best energy supplier.