Increase in the number of business operaters achieving highest rank in energy-conservation communication evaluation for the public
On 6th February, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the results of the “Energy Conservation Communication Ranking System” for FY2023, which ranks the quality of energy conservation information and services provided by electricity and gas retailers to general consumers on a five-point scale. The number of the city gas retailers achieving the highest rank of “five star” and participating in the system neary doubled over the previous year. Also, the first five-star company emarged in LP gas. On the other hand, participation of electricity retailers decreased by two-thirds over the previous year.
The system was launched in earnest in FY 2022. It ranks energy retailers based on the number of stars aquired, aiming to provide general consumers with a reference when choosing a retailer. Participation of retailers are optional. The evaluations are based on the services indicating the actual energy usage and prospects, as well as whether there is information provision such as conversion to energy conservation equipment. Electricity retailers are scored on a 145-point scale, while city gas and LP gas retailers are scored on a 130-point scale.
For electricity, despite that the number of participating retailers dropped from 136 to 89 compared to the previous year, the number of retailers achieving five stars with a score higher than 90% increased by 9 to 30. Forty six retailers achieved more than three-star (scored more than 50% and less than 70%) which surpassed the number of the retailers less than two-star (scored more than 30% and less than 50%) . The reason behind the overall decreased participation is that many of the 102 retailers received low evaluations of less than two-star in the previous year did not participated this time.
The number of city gas retailers participating increased from 41 to 76, and the the number of five-star ratings increased from 8 to 14. The number of LP gas retailers participating increased by 5 to 11. The Hokkaido gas is the only company to have acheived the five-star for both electricity and city gas n three consecutive years.