Data Energy has adopted GoCardless' Recurring Pay by Bank to automate utility billing payments.
The technology will be used to automate flexible energy meter top-up payments for Data Energy's customers, replacing the manual processes previously used to manage billing.
Data Energy provides heat network services and has relied on manual tracking and administration to manage customer meter top-ups. Through the process of moving to automated recurring billing through Open Banking, the company aims to reduce the administrative workload associated with manual billing and to lower customer churn linked to expired or lost bank cards. For customers, the shift removes the need to initiate top-ups manually while aiming to reduce the risk of service interruptions caused by missed payments.
Recurring Pay by Bank operates on the A2A payment scheme introduced by the UK Payments Initiative (UKPI) in 2025. The solution includes a routing mechanism that shifts payers to Direct Debit when Open Banking is not available, intended to maintain payment coverage from the outset. It also uses a feature GoCardless refers to as 'bank guess', which draws on data from a payer base the company says covers 80% of UK consumers, to pre-fill payment details during checkout.
Adoption follows one-off payments rollout
Data Energy's move into recurring Open Banking payments follows an earlier rollout of GoCardless' Pay by Bank feature for one-off transactions. According to the companies, that rollout achieved an 82% customer adoption rate within weeks of launch, a figure that has since risen to more than 90%. Data Energy cited this uptake as a factor in its decision to extend Open Banking payments to recurring billing.
Aaron Beadle, director of IT and technical services at Data Energy, said reducing administrative work for customers and staff has been a company priority, and that the response to Pay by Bank indicated readiness among customers for a simpler payment method, which supported the move to an A2A provider for recurring payments.
In addition, Pat Phelan, chief revenue officer at GoCardless, said the launch of Recurring Pay by Bank gives energy providers access to automated, flexible utility billing, which the company positions as a lower-cost way to manage variable usage while offering payers an alternative payment method.
The rollout reflects continued expansion of Open Banking-based payment methods in the UK utility sector, following the UKPI's introduction of a dedicated A2A scheme for recurring payments in 2025. Adoption of such infrastructure by utility providers points to broader efforts within the sector to reduce reliance on card-based recurring payments and address issues such as failed transactions linked to expired cards.
