We’re launching hourly renewable energy matching for all business customers
Good Energy is the first UK supplier to provide transparent time-based energy matching as standard to all of its half-hourly metered business customers
The way that renewable electricity is certified in the UK is not fit for purpose. Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificates (REGOs) do not provide the transparency needed to encourage an increasingly renewable energy system.
Not only do they provide little traceability given they can be traded separate to the power they relate to, the fact that they operate on an annual basis means they bare very little relation to the variability of either renewable generation or the way energy is consumed.
Time-based matching’s potential
As part of its trading strategy Good Energy has long matched its customer demand volume with the power it procures from the renewable generators it contracts with on a half-hourly basis, consistently achieving matching of over 86% in 30-minute intervals across the year. So we know better than any other energy supplier the potential of certifying renewable electricity in time-based intervals.
Time-based matching can revolutionise how renewable and storage technologies are incentivized as well as how customers count their carbon and flex when they use their power.
How this will be rolling out
That’s why Good Energy is launching time-based energy matching for all of its half hourly metered business customers, showing them how their usage coordinates with the power produced by our renewable generators on an hourly basis. The new service will provide customers with 24/7 ‘carbon free energy’ data, paving the way for new levels of transparency in carbon reporting and enabling businesses to shift when they use energy to reduce their emissions.
This will be the first time a UK energy supplier has launched such a service for all of its business customers and Good Energy is offering it as standard at no extra cost.
Everyone from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to the UK Green Buildings Council has recognised this isn’t satisfactory, but system reform doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. So working with Granular Energy, Good Energy is taking the initiative to move things forward and start combatting greenwash.
Tom Parsons, Sales and Origination Director, Good Energy
We are working with software providers Granular Energy to match our business customers’ usage with the output of an unrivalled portfolio of nearly 400 renewable generators across the UK. We plan to grow this to the full community of over 2,000 generators from which we procure power in the next 12 months.
Having previously trialled the Granular Energy platform with circular fashion manufacturer Teemill and Bristol-based inland surfing destination The Wave, a larger pool of Good Energy customers including the The Soil Association and natural skincare brand Haeckels will be trialling it from the end of October. The service will then be rolled out to all half-hourly metered business customers, before the end of the year.
What this means for customers
Our customers will now have the assurance that their usage is matched to genuine renewable generation to 100% on an annual basis, as well as over 86% on a half-hourly basis at a Good Energy portfolio level, with larger business customers able to see their individual hourly matching via the platform.
Good Energy Sales and Origination Director Tom Parsons had this to say: “Our business customers were already getting the greenest supply product on the market, as their electricity usage is 100% backed off with power purchased direct from our renewable generators. Now we’re taking this a step further by providing their hourly data matched with the output of those generators, giving them a much truer picture of their carbon impact and allowing them to focus their investment decisions on activity that will genuinely reduce their carbon footprint.
“Good Energy has long been critical of the REGO system, which allows suppliers buying brown power to trade certificates in an annual window in order to claim they offer ‘100% renewable electricity’. Everyone from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to the UK Green Buildings Council has recognised this isn’t satisfactory, but system reform doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. So working with Granular Energy, Good Energy is taking the initiative to move things forward and start combatting greenwash.”
You can find more information and register interest in hourly matching here.
