The second round of a pioneering collective energy-buying initiative has saved members an average of £112 on their annual fuel bills, with some customers seeing cuts of up to £715.
Cornwall Together saw a further 1,174 households switch their provider through the scheme, bringing the total to 2,326. People who switched in the second round saved nearly £132,000, making the savings for the people of Cornwall across both rounds £285,000.
CT programme manager Matt Hastings said: "We have completed our next step on the road to putting the power back in the hands of communities and have saved Cornish households hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.
"Now the big question is how can we apply this group-buying philosophy to other areas of our lives and start to completely re-model the relationship between people and companies."
As a result of Cornwall Together's success, three more regional projects have now been set up around the country, under the banner of UK Together. The sister projects are based in Birmingham and Solihull, Exeter and Scotland.
CT supporter Matthew Taylor, Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, said that with more than a thousand more Cornish switchers, households had saved another £100,000 from the energy companies. He said that in the coming weeks, the results of an in-depth research project examining attitudes to energy will be released.
"These savings prove the power of collective buying," said Lord Taylor. "But the research should also tell us how to encourage many more people to get together in this way so they can save too."
Conceived by the Eden Project, Cornwall Together was developed by Eden, Cornwall Council, the NHS and Community Energy Plus, aiming to bring people together to reduce fuel poverty, encourage sustainability and community resilience. They were joined by Cornwall-based energy platform, energyshare, and uSwitch, the independent price comparison and switching service.
Steve Ford, Green Cornwall programme manager at Cornwall Council, said: "I am pleased that so many households have once again chosen to switch their energy supplier to get a better deal.
"Cornwall Together is leading the way in creating a step change in the way Cornish residents think about their energy, and I hope that the combined savings from this switching round will prove to others that switching makes sense and we can have more control over our energy bills. It is yet another example of Cornwall leading the way when it comes to transforming the way we interact with energy."
Anyone who would like to register interest in being involved in future rounds of Cornwall Together can visit www.cornwalltogether.com or call 0800 772 0925.
