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.
