So Energy

So Energy is a relatively new 100% renewable electricity firm. Founded in 2015, it says it’s committed to ‘always keeping prices low’.

It claims to use the latest technology to be as efficient as possible and keep costs to a minimum, so it can pass savings on to its customers.

The company offers tariffs targeted at customers who want to pay by monthly direct debit. So Energy does not currently offer a prepayment meter option.

This small firm promises that its fixed-rate tariff will always be one of the best deals available. It also lets customers decide where they source their renewable electricity from – you can use an online voting poll on So Energy's website. It doesn’t currently supply green gas.

You can find out how So Energy's prices compare with your current deal – use Which? Switch to compare gas and electricity prices.

So Energy customer score

So Energy came joint seventh out of 35 energy companies rated by 7,355 members of the public in the annual Which? customer survey – the broadest independent view of energy firms available. Ecotricity joins it in seventh place, with a customer score of 75%.

It is a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) for energy for the first time this year, after being rated highly by customers and passing all our tough assessments.

Find out more about how firms qualify to become Which? Recommended Providers, or keep reading to find out more about what So Energy’s customers think of it. 

So Energy score breakdown

Below, we show the breakdown of So Energy’s score from our latest survey. Scroll down to see what its customers think of its prices and customer service.

Find out how So Energy compares with other energy companies – click to see the full results of the best and worst energy companies.

Which? verdict on So Energy

So Energy is included in our survey for the third year and its customers have always scored it highly. This year was no exception, with customers giving good feedback overall on all aspects of its service we asked about. They were particularly positive about the accuracy of its bills, which gained a five-star rating.

So Energy prices

Some 89% of So Energy customers in our survey said it was good or excellent value for money. While this isn’t the highest proportion across suppliers, none were rated a full five stars for value for money this year.

Such positive feedback is likely to be bolstered by So Energy’s ‘low price policy’, which states that its single fixed tariff will always be in the cheapest 10% of energy deals available for the average user. So Energy says it looks at the average annual cost of gas and electricity for a ‘medium’ user across the UK to establish this.

The low price policy applies to both single rate and Economy 7 meters. It only applies to the company's fixed deal – once your fixed tariff expires, so will the price promise.

Customers signing up to tariffs between October and March may have ‘seasonal payments’. This means you pay 25% more in winter months and 25% less in the summer. You can switch to equal monthly payments if you prefer.

So Energy customer service

So Energy achieved four stars for its customer service (only Octopus Energy achieved the full five stars).

In 2019, So Energy was the fastest firm both to answer the phone and respond to emails in our energy companies' call waiting times investigation. It took a mere 38 seconds.

Disappointingly, its call waiting times were significantly longer when we carried out our annual snapshot investigation in September and October 2020. The median average time from dialling to speaking to a human was nearly 17 minutes (16 minutes 52 seconds). 

The average time waiting across all the 31 companies we called was 5 minutes and 57 seconds; the fastest firm, , took just 51 seconds.

So Energy also took much longer than last year to respond to emails: 3 days 7 hours 31 minutes, on average. Last year it responded in an average of 29 minutes. The slowest company, , took nearly five days but the fastest, E, only 45 minutes.

As with all providers, we will be reviewing the WRP status of So Energy when we have the full results from our annual energy survey in early 2021.

Although we didn’t receive enough responses to give So Energy a rating for complaints handling, it gets a very low number of customer complaints, according to industry data.

So Energy doesn’t currently cater for prepayment meters, although it will take customers on Economy 7 meters.

Pros: Competitively priced fixed tariff, customers praise its accurate bills

Cons: Doesn't supply prepayment meters, no customer service at the weekend

So Energy electricity sources

So Energy lets customers vote for where they want it to buy energy from (out of solar, wind, hydro, biomass or tidal) using an online polling system.

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