Green Energy Republic

A clear win for transparency in the electricity market

By Will Vooght

At Good Energy we aspire to be as transparent as possible. But despite our best efforts, confusion among consumers is still rife in the electricity market – particularly when it comes to green electricity tariffs. What am I getting for my money? Where are the benefits of a green tariff? How green is green?

It’s frustrating for customers, and it’s frustrating for suppliers, which is why earlier this year Good Energy became a signatory to the independent Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme, something we were instrumental in bringing into being.

Getting Green Certification recognized as the key criteria for listing green electricity tariffs on utility broker websites has been an ongoing campaign of ours so we are delighted with a decision announced today by Consumer Focus, Britain’s consumer champion. Electricity tariffs, unless certified green by the Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme, now cannot be listed on broker sites (like uSwitch and Which?) under the category of ‘green’ whatsoever. The result is that consumers will be provided with a clear and simple choice of the genuinely green tariffs on offer, as well as know that they all meet a minimum requirement.

But best of all, in addition to requiring only certified tariffs be included in the green tariff searches, the Code also recommends that green tariffs should be listed according to the Fuel Mix of their supplier. This is an exciting development and a great move in giving consumers confidence that by purchasing a green tariff they are making a real difference, rather than being a victim of ‘greenwash’. We also hope it will help to demonstrate that there is a clear difference between a tariff offered by a 100% renewable supplier – Good Energy – and some of the tariffs offered by suppliers where renewables account for just a small slither of their business and which are really brown energy suppliers at heart.

Before now it was up to individual brokers to decide whether they list green tariffs and if they do, how, as well as deciding what even counts as ‘green’. Consumer Focus’ Confidence Code is in place to ensure that – with the wide range of energy tariffs on offer; whether fixed price, online or, of course, green – energy broker sites conform to minimum standards. Its overall aim is to make choosing a new energy tariff far simpler and ensure that consumers are being provided with the best available information – something we applaud.

The Green Energy Supply Certification Scheme has two main guiding principles which ensure that every unit of green electricity a customer buys is properly certified.

It gets rather technical, but essentially the accreditation under the scheme signifies that the electricity supplied on behalf of the customer is 100% renewable and backed by the appropriate REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin) and LECs (Levy Exemption Certificates). This ensures there is no double counting of electricity i.e. it cannot be sold twice to business and domestic customers, and that for every customer there is an additional measurable form of carbon mitigation (“additionality”) to the equivalent of 50kg CO2 per customer per year. For Good Energy this means in the order of 1,600 tonnes per year in addition to providing 100% renewable electricity.

Consumer Focus’ decision is excellent news for Good Energy and green tariffs as a whole. Now, not only can consumers be given full confidence in their choice of green tariff thanks to the Certification Scheme – but have been given the tools to select the right one because of the Confidence Code.

It’s all too rare, but sometimes regulation – and a bit of campaigning – works rather well.

The RHI - how it could work

After much recent speculation about the fate of the Renewable Heat Incentive in the upcoming comprehensive spending review, nuggets of hope from the Conservative Party Conference yesterday. In his speech, Minister of State in the cabinet office Oliver Letwin, MP confirmed the Government’s support for an RHI: “Our incentive for renewable heat will bring forward the generation of heat from waste and other renewable sources - a crucial part of cutting carbon and maintaining energy security,” he said. As our CEO Juliet Davenport commented, "It’s great news the Government is supporting the Renewable Heat Incentive – now we need to hear the details and find out the level of payments and how it will be delivered."

Not surprisingly, we’ve got our own ideas about this.

Heat accounts for 47% of the UK’s carbon emissions, while renewable heat is currently only 1% of overall heat demand. An effective RHI is an essential step towards a low-carbon future, and could boost this to as much as 12%. Good Energy has been offering our own version of the RHI – HotRocs – since September 2008. The way this works is that our gas customers pay a small levy which creates a pot of money to spend on research and to provide our customers with solar thermal installations a payment of 4.5p/kWh of deemed heat produced. The Good Energy HotRocs initiative currently supports over 450 solar thermal users, equating to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 270 tonnes a year.

An equivalent UK-wide scheme for renewable heat based on the current FiT scheme would be simple to implement.

Here’s how it could work:

	Feed-in Tariff	Renewable Heat Incentive
Levy upon	Licensed electricity suppliers	Licensed gas suppliers
Paid by	Mandatory & voluntary FiT Suppliers (subset of above)	Mandatory & voluntary RHI Suppliers (subset of above)
Paid on	Total metered generation & deemed or metered export	Deemed heat production
Validation by	MCS	MCS
Administered by	Ofgem e-serve	Ofgem e-serve

Because of the support gas customers received from government when building the gas grid – which off-gas-grid users have not benefitted from – the levy should be solely on gas suppliers. Off-gas-grid users should be entitled to the support of the RHI without cost to compensate for the earlier financial losses. As with the FiT, off-gas-grid customers should be able to request that a mandatory RHI supplier acts as their RHI provider, even though they are not a gas customer.

Heat metering is expensive, but deeming heat production is a recognised methodology, and field trials by various organisations such as the Energy Savings Trust are improving it all the time, making the RHI simpler than the FiT.

Administering the RHI and possibly the FiT will also be more cost-effective for both Ofgem e-serve and the Utility companies if it is done by cloning the existing FiT systems. This would save costs which are ultimately borne by energy customers.

A UK-wide RHI will also be instrumental in addressing fuel poverty as, like FiT, it provides an opportunity for social and private landlords to earn an income in return for their investment in renewable technology, whilst providing free heat to their tenants.

We know it can work because we’re already doing it.

Our partners Friends of the Earth have launched a campaign calling for the government to introduce the RHI – please show your support by writing to your MP. Together we do this.

We’re getting behind the We Support Solar Campaign

After last week’s disappointing comment from Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne that the Feed-in Tariff scheme wouldn’t be amended to reward early-adopters equally, further concerns are looming over the safety of both the FiT and RHI in the upcoming spending review.

We’ve signed an open letter from our friends at We Support Solar to Chris Huhne asking him to protect FiT from spending cuts.

The We Support Solar campaign shares our belief that solar power should be an important part of the renewable energy mix in the UK – and campaigned to make sure  that FiT payments for generating solar electricity were strong enough to enable solar power generation to take off in the UK. It’s determined to ensure that generation from PV technology becomes a significant part of this country’s energy network.

You can read the letter here - please show your support by adding your name and sending this on to anyone else you think will be interested. It’s vitally important that we apply pressure and show strong support for PV at this crucial time. Together we do this.

No Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs

After many months of campaigning on behalf of our microgeneration early adopters for a fairer deal on the Feed-in Tariff, at last we’ve got an answer from Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Unfortunately it’s not the answer we were hoping for.

Following a query on the issue from Caroline Lucas, MP (Green Party) during Energy & Climate Change Question Time last week, Chris Huhne said: “I considered the issue carefully on a value-for-money basis, and I am afraid that the advice from my officials was clearly that we cannot introduce retrospection in such cases because it does not represent value for money. We are trying to introduce new schemes in future, and therefore, sadly, the only incentive and payback that people get is the warm glow of being pioneers.”

This was disappointing given the level of support our campaign received from both Lib Dems and Conservatives when they were in opposition: 97 MPs signed an Early Day Motion calling for pre-July 2009 early adopters to be rewarded equally for their hard work and innovation. (Under the current FiT scheme those who installed their technology before July 5th 2009 receive a much lower payment (9p a unit) than those who were accredited after that date (up to 41.3p)). The then Conservative opposition committed, in writing, to reviewing Government policy in this area and 80% of Liberal Democrat MPs, including leading members who are now in Government, backed the campaign.

As our founder and CEO, Juliet Davenport, told the Guardian yesterday: “The UK microgeneration industry owes its existence to these early adopters who installed their own generation equipment because they wanted to make a difference to climate change. Many invested their life savings in such schemes because they believed it was the right thing to do – and they deserve to be recognised and rewarded for their entrepreneurial attitude, not penalised.”

Juliet revisited the issue in an article in Business Green last week which highlighted that many of those eligible for FiT still haven’t registered and could be in danger of missing out.

Good Energy will therefore continue to pay microgenerators on our HomeGen scheme who had their systems installed before 1st February 2010, and aren’t eligible for the higher FiT rate, 15p a unit until April 2011.

Chris Huhne’s decision now heightens the debate around the future of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Juliet Davenport added: “Now we know the Government isn't going to do anything on the feed-in tariff for the early-adopters, we need a prompt decision about the RHI. In view of the Government’s decision, early-adopters of renewable heat will likely be deterred from any new investment in case they get the same treatment.”

Microgeneration has a key role to play in helping the UK reach a 100% renewable future by 2050, and we hope the Government will do more to encourage and aid – rather than obstruct – our community of homegrown energy pioneers. 

Read the Government’s official response to the decision here.

At last - a 2050 plan

By Juliet Davenport, CEO and founder, Good Energy

For the last few years, calls to decarbonise the UK Energy market have felt like cries in the wilderness.  All talk with no action.  Yesterday the landscape changed when Chris Huhne, the Energy secretary, announced the UK’s first coordinated Energy Plan for 2050.

Accompanying this announcement is a couple of thousand pages, and a raft of proposals and consultations.  However, the key document for me is the structural reform plan.  In this, the Government lays out its workload for the next 12 months with deliverables, milestones and joined-up thinking.

It’s also put out for trial a carbon calculator on how we can reach our 2050 target, encouraging people to test its assumptions -- we will be doing so soon.  This is open government and it means business.  Rather than a vague plan which tinkers around the edges, Chris Huhne has delivered a firm commitment to reform how the energy market works and how it is regulated. 

The UK must decarbonise our electricity market, and this means that the market must be designed to favour renewables, rather than throwing up obstacles in their way.  This requires reforming both transmission and distribution networks; establishing a long-term carbon price; and ensuring energy trading arrangements can accommodate significant penetration by renewable energy. On the consumer side, reform is needed to incentivise customers to switch to Green tariffs - rather than rating all electricity as having the same carbon content, ‘Grid Average,’ regardless of how it was generated.

After years of dithering, the government is at last pushing forward with plans for smart metering.  However, work still needs to be done on reforming the settlement system for gas and electricity so it delivers effective ‘time of use’ tariffs – so everyone benefits from higher rates at peak times.

Effective demand management will also play an important role in the energy landscape of the future, and the Government has shown it’s serious about energy efficiency.  As the UK decarbonises, then electricity use will grow at the expense of fossil fuels – for example the transition to electric cars will have a big impact.  Either we double our generation capacity, or we use our energy in a smarter and more efficient way.

Heating is another area which needs to be looked at. The UK uses more energy heating our homes than Sweden does. Yesterday’s announcement was short on ideas for that, although the plan tells us it will deliver some proposals soon.

Here at Good Energy, we are pleased with this approach, and will work hard with this Government to do what we have always done – move from an aspiration to make a difference to climate change to actually delivering a result.

UK Budget – Green jam tomorrow?

By Juliet Davenport

Despite the coalition labelling itself the greenest government ever, environmental measures were conspicuous by their absence from yesterday’s budget.

This budget was strictly business – with the focus clearly on spending cuts and tax rises. Although we did get promises of greener things to come in the Autumn, it would have been nice to hear more on these initiatives yesterday. 

We can look forward to seeing more detailed proposals to reform the climate change levy in order to support the carbon price – something Good Energy welcomes as it should encourage greater uptake of renewables, helping the UK reach its targets. 

We also want to hear more detail on how the Green Investment Bank will work – and the Green Deal to help people invest in better energy efficiency. 

Environmenatlists will also have been disappointed not to get an announcement on taxing air travel, switching from a per passenger to a per plane duty – although the Chancellor did say he’d ‘explore’ such changes to help reduce carbon emissions. 

Here at Good Energy, we’re disappointed but not all that surprised that the government didn’t use this opportunity to do more on the green agenda, especially given its headline commitment to fighting climate change outlined in the coalition agreement. There’s plenty of work still to be done – even with spending restrictions in place.

Areas we are keen to see develop are that the coalition stick to its pre-election pledge to reform the feed-in tariff in line with our campaign for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs and support for the Renewable Heat Incentive. 

Homegrown Energy - Together we do this

By Juliet

We hope you like our new look.  As more and more electricity suppliers shout about their so-called green credentials we want to make sure Good Energy stands out from the crowd, because we really think we have something different - and much better- to offer.

As the champions of homegrown electricity, we want to change the way people think about their energy - and reconnect them with where it comes from, so they value it more and use it less.

Our new campaign is about spreading the message that Good Energy is simple stuff - it doesn't have to be supplied by big dirty power stations, it can be pure and clean and made by ordinary people and communities throughout the UK, giving us greater energy security and putting something back into the communities where it comes from.

As we support over 1300 independent energy entrepreneurs throughout the UK, there's bound to be one near you. So, if you can't make your own energy, the next best thing you can do is buy your electricity from those who do

Choosing to buy electricity from Good Energy rather than a big supplier is a bit like choosing to buy your food from the farmers' market rather than the supermarket - you know what's in it and that it's come from our network of local suppliers.

To find out more about our vision, watch the Good film (above) - or listen to me explaining our philosophy below.

 

Good Energy: Campaigning on your behalf

By Juliet Davenport, CEO

As we head towards election day, we thought it would be a good opportunity to update you on some of the work we’ve been doing in Westminster recently.

At Good Energy we’ve always been proud of our campaigning credentials and we’ve always tried to be more than just a company to our customers and generators. Empowering individuals to make a difference to climate change is at the heart of our ethos. It’s for that reason we strive to act as an advocate in Westminster for our generators and customers to ensure that politicians of all parties recognise the importance of growing renewable energy, particularly on a small and medium scale. Over the years we’ve built up a wealth of knowledge and experience from working with our community of energy entrepreneurs and we want to capitalise on that by communicating that information to those politicians most likely to influence Government and Opposition policy.

Our recent Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs campaign is just one example of some of the work we’ve been doing. By working with Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael and by providing our generators with the materials necessary to write to their own Members of Parliament, almost 100 MPs have rallied to our cause and called for the fair treatment to those microgenerators who broke the ground that made the Clean Energy Cash Back Scheme (aka feed-in tariff) possible. At the same time, we’ve been speaking to key MPs, both on the front and back benches, to get them to press our case further through their own contacts. With it now looking increasingly likely that the current Labour Government will be in Opposition in a week’s time, and with the Conservatives committed to reviewing early adopters’ policy immediately upon taking office and with the support from the vast majority of Lib Dem MPs, we now stand a very good chance of winning this campaign.

The next few days is sure to be one of the most exciting ends to a General Election campaign for years, and who knows what the result will be! Whether it is a new Conservative government, a hung Parliament or a coalition government, a whole range of opportunities will exist in Westminster to press Good Energy’s case in the debate on the issues that matter. Whether it be campaigning for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs or arguing that it’s not right to expect renewable electricity customers to pay for carbon capture and storage plans, we hope to take full advantage of those opportunities and try our best to act as your advocate into the future.

Some of the other issues we hope to take up with whoever wins power include: delivering a fair and effective renewable heat incentive; addressing some of the planning problems associated with onshore wind and other renewable schemes; and reform of the national grid to ensure independent electricity generators can deliver their power. So, please watch this space.

If you care about the environment, please vote

This election will be a critical one for climate change. According to the science, global carbon emissions need to have stopped rising within this decade if we are to limit global warming to two degrees.

However, for most of the campaign the main parties have all but ignored the environment as an election issue.

If you’re not sure which party has the best policies for tackling climate change, we hope the summary below could give you some ideas!  For further help www.voteforpolicies.org.uk  is a unique survey, based on policies alone, to help you find out who you should be voting for.

But whoever you choose please do vote!!

Here’s how the main parties stack up on green issues:

What targets have they set for the UK?

LibDems:  To make the UK carbon neutral by 2050, with up to 10% of offsets.  Reduce emissions by 40% by 2020 with no offsetting.

Greens:  65% cut in emissions by 2020, 90% by 2030. Aim to obtain 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 and ensure that emissions from power generation are zero by 2030.

Conservatives:  Reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, 10% cut in central Government emissions within 12 months.

Labour:   15% renewable energy, with 40% “low carbon” electricity both by 2020, transport emissions also down by 14% by 2020. 

How do they intend to meet them?

Greens:  £45bn ‘Green Deal’ investment to create 1m green jobs.  Free home insulation programme for every home. Enlarge and develop renewable energy feed-in tariffs paying premium rates for large and small producers of renewable electricity.  Direct £20bn Government investment in renewable generation.  Reallocate current Government’s road building budget into public transport. Introduce stronger planning policies to support onshore wind, tidal, wave, solar and geothermal energy schemes. Give micro-renewables ‘permitted development’ status.

LibDems:  £3.1bn public investment to create 100,000 green jobs. Introduce an Eco-Cashback Scheme to give people £400 towards energy efficient home improvements and small energy generation projects. National home insulation programme, paid out of energy savings.  No new coal unless fitted with carbon capture (CCS). Also require CCS on industrial emissions, though support an exemption for renewable suppliers from paying for CCS.  Amend energy tariffs so you pay more, the more you use.

Conservatives:  Green Deal loan for all homes up to £6,500 to improve energy efficiency repaid for over 25 years, from energy savings.  Reform the Climate Change Levy into a carbon tax.  Develop smart grid and roll out smart meters quicker, by 2016 rather than 2020.  Increase offshore wind, introduce financial incentives for local communities to build onshore wind farms and develop two marine energy parks.  New nuclear stations and coal with carbon capture, but support an exemption for renewable energy suppliers from paying for CCS. Expand feed-in-tariffs for incentivising renewable generation up to 10MW.

Labour:   Ensure all homes have loft and cavity wall insulation by 2015. Introduce ‘Pay As You Save’ financing schemes under which home energy improvements can be paid for from the savings they generate on energy bills. Increase offshore wind by up to 40 times the current capacity. Develop new nuclear stations, and coal stations with carbon capture.  Create 400,000 green jobs by 2015. Create a £2bn Green Investment Bank to encourage investment in energy infrastructure.

What do they propose to do on the international front?

Labour:   Push the EU to move its emission reduction target for 2020 from 20% to 30%.  Work for a legally binding global agreement to limit global temperature rise to 2C.  Increase UK commitment to 34% reduction, if other countries sign a legally binding agreement.

LibDems:  Work for a legally binding global agreement to limit global temperatures to 1.7C, based on equalising emissions between developed and developing nations. Develop an electricity grid that can connect and integrate clean energy technologies particularly through the better use of sub-sea connections, leading to the development of a European Supergrid.

Conservatives:  Work towards ambitious global deal, including financial support for adaptation and mitigation by poorer countries.

Greens:  Will work on a global climate change deal. Support Europe-wide renewable energy initiatives.

What policies set them apart?

Greens:  Phase out nuclear power. Will renationalise the railways and reduce motorway speed limits to 55 mph.

LibDems:  No new nuclear power stations.  Will introduce a bus scrappage scheme to replace old buses with more efficient ones.

Conservatives:  Do not propose significant public expenditure in order to achieve policy objectives, preferring to use the power of market instead. Plan to reform Ofgem and DECC. Will incentivise electricity network operators to build a national network of electric vehicle charging points.

Labour:   Support a 3rd runway at Heathrow, keep current Climate Change Levy arrangements.  Retain plans for a central Government Infrastructure Planning Commission. Believe that renewable electricity customers should pay for CCS and that FiT ‘early adopters’ should not be recognised.

Want to find out more?

Click on the links below to read all parties’ green manifestos in full.

• Labour’s Green manifesto
• Green Party manifesto
• Lib Dems Green manifesto
• Conservative manifesto

 

Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs – election update

We’ve had a few phone calls from customers asking us which party offers the best support for microgenerators. Well, here at Good Energy we try and stay politically neutral – we want to ensure that climate change and a sensible renewable energy policy are high on the agenda for all parties.

But with an election looming, we think it’s time for an update on our campaign for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs -- and what the main parties’ positions are.

In case you missed it, our campaign is about getting a better deal for early adopters of microgeneration technology. Under the FiT scheme introduced on April 1st by the current Labour government,  those who installed their technology before July 15th 2009 will be getting a much lower payment (9p a unit) than those who were accredited after that date (up to 41.3p). We believe that green energy entrepreneurs should not be worse off under the new scheme. So we’ve been campaigning for a change in the legislation to ensure they get the recognition they deserve. See more here.

Before parliament was dissolved for the start of the election campaign, Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael tabled an Early Day Motion on this issue. Some 96 MPs signed the motion, which is a great result.

The largest group of signatories by party was the Lib Dems, with 40 of their group of 60 MPs adding their names to the motion. However, their front bench energy team has yet to make a statement openly supporting the campaign.

By contrast, the Conservatives have publicly promised to change the law if they get elected, saying “within fair and appropriate conditions, we will allow capacity that was installed without public subsidy before the start of the feed-in tariff scheme to qualify for the tariffs.”

Of course, a lot depends on what they mean by ‘fair and appropriate conditions’.

Meanwhile, we’ve heard nothing from Labour – but then, as their government was responsible for what we’re campaigning against in the first place, perhaps that’s not surprising.

We’ll be looking in greater depth at the different parties’ broader manifestos for the environment on the blog over the next few days – so watch this space.

___________________

Our friends over at Friends of the Earth are running a great campaign on the issue. Friends of the Earth's letter to the three main parties and their full responses can be seen at: www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/decentrailed_energy_letter.pdf

And take a look at their blog here: http://election.foe.co.uk/blog/entry/a-landslide-in-favour-of-renewable-energy-in-the-home/