What your pool's energy contract isn’t telling you

Ask a room full of pool operators what their biggest costs are and you’ll get the same two answers: people, then energy. For plenty of pools, the order flips. A centre with a 25-metre pool can put £150,000 a year into energy, and most of it goes on one job. Keeping the water warm.

I sat on the energy costs panel at EVOLVE’s FreeFlow conference this month, in front of exactly that room. And if one message came through louder than any session topic, it was this: pool operators need more money. Cash to run on, capital to invest with. Not strategies, not sympathy. Money.

Fair enough. So here’s an honest look at where some is hiding.

The question four in ten couldn’t answer

We polled the room: when does your energy contract come up for renewal? The most popular answer was “not sure”. Four operators in ten.

That’s worth sitting with. For the most volatile cost in the business, the renewal date is the one moment anything can change. It’s the only window where timing, competition and terms are up for grabs. Miss it, or sleepwalk through it, and the next few years are decided by default.

Most of your bill isn’t yours to control. The rest decides everything.

Wholesale prices, network charges, policy costs. Out of your hands, all of it, and it’s why bills keep climbing.

What is in your hands: when you buy, how many suppliers genuinely compete for your business, and how clearly you can see what you’re paying for. Three decisions. Every pound a pool operator can save lives inside those three decisions and nowhere else.

And most of this sector makes them alone. EVOLVE's State of the UK Swimming Industry Report counts 485 organisations running the UK's public swimming sites, and 313 of them run a single site. That matters, because the energy market doesn't treat every buyer the same. The biggest buyers get access to contracts and pricing a single-site operator never sees. They have procurement teams whose whole job is watching the market, running tenders and reading the small print. A pool manager has a pool to run. Without the time, the expertise or the buying power, energy procurement is a minefield, and most operators are left to cross it on their own.

They don't have to any more. That's the premise of directOS: the market access, expertise and buying power the biggest operators have always had, run for any operator, for one fixed, visible annual fee, with nothing added to your unit rate. Water tenders are included too (business water has been a competitive market since 2017, and surprisingly few pools have ever tested it), along with the carbon reporting your net zero commitments keep asking for.

You’ve already swum the hardest length

When we asked the FreeFlow room about renewables, 58% already have generation installed. This sector has invested properly in making energy. It’s the buying that’s gone unexamined. And the two belong together, because every panel and heat pump pays back faster when the energy it saves was bought well.

On typical tenders we see £10,000 to £40,000 of savings. Remember what the room said it needed. Cash to run on, capital to invest with. This is both.

Start with one question

When does your contract end? If you’re not sure, you’re in good company, and it’s a ten-minute fix. Our free contract check gives you the full picture of your own deal: no documents to dig out, no obligation, just ten minutes.