EDF Energy is offering small and medium sized businesses a new “more flexible” energy tariff with no fixed end date, it announced today. EDF will also publish the prices of the new contract on its website.

The supplier says the new ‘Freedom for business’ tariff is a variable priced contract which customers are free to leave at any time. It claims this is an “industry first” among major energy companies.

Customers can now choose between ‘Freedom for business’ which gives flexibility but no price certainty and a range of one, two, three and four year fixed price contracts which offer price certainty for the length of the contract – but customers must commit to the contract period, according to EDF.

Richard Hughes, Director of SME at EDF Energy said: “Up to this point, the norm in the industry is to only offer fixed term contracts where customers are automatically renewed each year unless they give notice to leave or actively seek a different contract.

“For some customers, this type of ‘set it and forget it’ approach works well, but for others who are not ready to commit to another year or are unsure of what the future holds, this has been a frustrating way of purchasing electricity,” he added.