Ahead of the prime minister's anticipated proposals to address high energy bills and possible blackouts this winter, Derin Clark talks to businesses about how the energy crisis is affecting them.
Norfolk is heading for a winter of discontent unless Liz Truss' emergency plan, due to be announced today, can successfully halt rising bills and keep gas and electricity supplies flowing.
Ms Truss is expected to freeze energy bills at around £2,500, but the details - including whether businesses will get a price cap and how it will be paid for - remain uncertain.
Many firms across the region cannot afford to wait for the government to act and have instead been putting their own plans in place to try to lower their costs and ensure that their lights and heating stay on.
"Our energy costs could go up to £100,000 a month"
Claudia Roberts, CEO of the Zoological Society of East Anglia, a charity that runs Banham Zoo and Africa Alive, said that they're on the edge of their seat waiting for Liz Truss' announcement as their energy costs could triple, which will devastate the zoos.
She said: "We haven't been affected by the energy increases yet but we will see from October onwards what the full impact will be.
"It could triple our energy costs, which would be devastating for us, especially after Covid.
"Our energy costs could go up from £30,000 to £90,000 or £100,000 a month.
"We can afford a small increase but can't afford to have it triple.
"I'm in full support of Liz Truss not creating a windfall tax and freezing energy prices that has to be repaid.
"We're on the edge of our seats waiting for the announcement.
"If there is a freeze we will then look to fix for a period of time.
"This would help as there is a lot of seasonality in the tourism industry so not every month of the year is profitable.
"We're challenged with cost of living, where people might not have enough money to go out, and the energy crisis, which is seeing our costs rise.
"We can't stop heating some of our animals.
"Having heat for some animals is life or death - you can't put a jumper on a giraffe.
"Power cuts is also an area we are thinking about.
"We have back-up generators for our key enclosures and emergency protocols."
"Power cuts would really affect us"
Miranda Hudson, co-owner of independent brewery Duration Brewing, which is located near Castle Acre, said that if power cuts were to happen it would cause major disruption to the business.
She said: "A lot of our work anchors on gas and CO2, but we've locked into a three-year fixed contract that will really help us.
"We sell to a lot of pubs and I worry about them, I just don't know how they will manage.
"If power cuts happened they would really affect us.
"Our beer would spoil while it is being made.
"It seems we are heading for a really difficult time.
"The war in Ukraine has already affected our supply chain.
"It feels very uncertain. It really is an unsettling time.
"We sell to small independent businesses and they are on narrow margins anyway, I think we will see those companies all really struggle or have to close their doors.
"We already do a lot with energy efficiency in the brewery to keep our energy usage down."
"We remain optimistic about Christmas"
Jo Bates the operating manager at Chantry Place said that the Norwich shopping centre is planning to keep energy costs down over the festive period by installing energy efficient lighting.
Ms Bates said: "We have numerous energy efficiency systems in place at the centre. We have halved our own energy consumption since 2010 and continue to drive energy efficiency across our operations and source electricity from sustainable sources.
"We were also one of the first shopping centres in the UK to invest in a rooftop solar farm and have 772 solar panels that have to date generated enough green electricity to have boiled your kettle over 8.5 million times.
"We remain optimistic about Christmas too with our brand new festive lighting scheme being installed at the end of October with them all being LED lights with timers to keep costs down.”
"We've got a generator"
Stuart Pell from North Walsham-based aquatics shop Angel Aquatics and Reptiles said that the garden centre is not expecting to see its energy costs rise.
He said: "We are in a lucky position that I buy energy through our landlord who has locked into a fixed contract so our energy will stay the same.
"I'm not too concerned about power cuts as we've got a generator - it is just common sense for us to have one."
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