Orchard Energy’s Elland call centre set to double workforce

Orchard Energy, the West Yorkshire-based energy management specialist, is set to create further jobs after opening a new call centre at its head office in Elland in July.

The new call centre created 30 new jobs when it launched last month, and now it is looking to double that to 60 to accommodate an increase in demand for smart meters in homes.

The call centre is part of a five-year contract won by Orchard Energy’s sister company, Providor, both part of the Lakehouse Group, to provide smart meter services for one of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies.

The remit of the call centre is to deliver the UK-wide smart meter telesales services.

In its first month, the call centre has exceeded its appointment booking target by 17%. It has also surpassed a target to secure 85% capacity of engineers’ time, instead scheduling 95% of its capacity.

Smart meters are becoming more prevalent in response to a new government legislation which aims to fit 53 million digital gas and electricity meters in 30 million premises (households and businesses) by 2020 across Wales, Scotland and England. There have already been 3.6 million installations in Great Britain so far.

olette Costello, Orchard Energy’s operations director, said: “The success of the call centre in its first month is phenomenal. Despite it being a new team, working with new systems and techniques, all staff have exceeded our expectations.

“Consumers are becoming more savvy when it comes to their energy consumption and how they can save money, and smart meters are being seen as a logical solution to monitor that, which is why take up is so high for appointments following our calls.”

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