Our energy

A supplier’s fuel mix shows the sources of the electricity that it supplies to its customers. For example, coal, gas, nuclear and renewables.

Over the course of a year, energy suppliers must buy enough electricity to feed into the national electricity grid to cover the amount their customers take out. At the end of each year, suppliers must disclose their fuel mix to the electricity and gas regulator, Ofgem. This information is published annually to help people make informed choices about their electricity supplier.

We buy renewable power direct from over 3,000 independent renewable generators.

We also source electricity from Westermost Rough Wind Farm, which is situated five miles off the Yorkshire Coast. We purchase 12% of its overall output, which is enough renewable electricity per year for more than 33,000 average homes.

Added together, the renewable electricity from all these sources matches the amount of electricity we supply to our home and business customers across the UK.

For more detailed information on how we source electricity, read the Environmental Benefits substantiation report below.

Being on a Good Energy tariff brings with it a number of additional environmental benefits, over and above those brought about by government subsidies and obligations. The drop-down sections on Electricity Purchasing, Generator Support and Innovation outline those benefits, which apply to all Good Energy tariffs.

For information about our specific tariffs, select the drop-down section titled Tariff Specific Environmental Information.

Good Energy holds Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with over 2000 generators. PPAs provide greater financial support and security to generators than selling Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificates. Many green energy suppliers buy REGOs to be able to claim that their fuel mix is renewable; it is a false assertion to state that buying REGOs provides meaningful support to generators in and of themselves.[i]

• Subsidy free PPAs: Our partnerships help new renewables get built where they otherwise would not. PPAs provide a route to market for unsubsidized renewable power, where exposure to the wholesale market might be a risk too far for developers. A recent example of this is our deal with Flintshire County Council to buy the power which will be produced by two solar sites.

All our tariffs carry the same level of environmental benefit and support for renewables, which means that if a customer joins Good Energy, we must contract with more renewable generators. We cannot, as has been common industry practice, simply move some green power across from a ‘brown’ tariff and buy cheap wholesale power to top our volumes up. This approach earned us the joint highest sustainability rating in Which? magazine’s review of green claims and electricity purchasing across the energy market.

To ensure our customer demand is backed by PPAs, over the course of a year we tend to over-procure. For example, in 2021 our PPAs provided 113% of our customers’ demand.

We never use Guarantee of Origin certificates (GoOs). Suppliers who use GoOs instead of REGOs can avoid environmental levies such as the Feed-in Tariff and Contracts for Difference – and so customers who are on tariffs backed by GoOs alone could be contributing less to decarbonising UK energy than a customer on a grid average tariff.[ii]

Because of the size and variety (both in technology and geographical location) of our renewable portfolio, we invest heavily in forecasting, beyond that which would be required of a supplier who either holds no PPAs, or PPAs with a small number of large generators. This increased insight allows us to give renewable generators better prices, which helps them to be financially viable propositions.

Many of the generators we buy from do not have generation as their primary business activity, and so we provide extra support and advisory services to enable them to sell their power. We work constantly to ensure our generators are ready for upcoming industry changes – our support, according to Ofgem, ‘helps renewable generators enter the market and helps existing generators to remain there.’[i]

We campaign and advocate on behalf of renewable generators, including with Government; raising awareness and promoting their interests. Due to the way governance systems are set up, smaller renewable generators are consistently underrepresented in conversations about industry change. Good Energy allocates resource to participate in industry consultation and modification processes not only on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of generators.

Good Energy has a long history of incentivising new renewable generation. We have offered this for years through financial support mechanisms, such as HomeGen, which laid the foundations for the Feed-in Tariff, and SmartGen, a simplified PPA available to small renewable sites with an installed capacity of up to 250kW.

We have also issued two corporate bonds to fund our purpose of supporting clean energy. The first bond is now being repaid to investors after the successful development of 13 solar projects and 150MW of new renewable capacity across the UK.

Running alongside this financial support is a commitment to clean energy innovation. One of the new services Good Energy has launched is called One Price. This is designed to support independent generators in a challenging market where financial margins can be tight. The free service helps renewable generators achieve a fair price for their exported power. Generators are able to set the price they want, and a dedicated team of Good Energy analysts will track the wholesale electricity market until they can lock in this rate. This service provides a guaranteed price and long-term financial reassurance to generators, and is something we can only provide with a dedicated, well-resourced team.

SVT Electricity

Good Energy’s electricity Standard Variable Tariff was awarded a derogation from the default tariff price cap because it supports the generation of electricity from renewable sources. This derogation was granted to only three suppliers in the marketplace, despite many others offering ‘100% renewable’ tariffs.

Ofgem awarded Good Energy’s SVT a derogation from the price cap expressly because it explicitly supports renewable generation. The following points were highlighted by the regulator as evidence of the additional support we provide to renewable generators:

• The PPAs we hold with provide financial support and security over and above that provided by REGOS.
• The advisory service we provide to current and would-be generators, helping them get sites built and enter the market, and keeping them aware of upcoming industry change.
• The advanced forecasting techniques we use which allows us to pass more value through to generators.
• The campaigning, advocacy, and promotion activities we undertake on behalf of our generator partners, including with Government, raising awareness, and promoting their interests.

^[1] Government subsidies and obligations which are paid for by all UK billpayers include the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in-Tariff, and the Contracts for Difference scheme.

^[1] The shortcomings of REGO backed tariffs as a means of supporting renewable energy was recently set out independently but the CCC, in their paper on Corporate Procurement of Renewable Energy.

^[1] Our research note on GoO use showed that 126m of environmental levies and taxes were avoided by energy utilities using European certificates last year.

^[1] Ofgem derogation letter to Good Energy

[1] The shortcomings of REGO backed tariffs as a means of supporting renewable energy was recently set out independently but the CCC, in their paper on Corporate Procurement of Renewable Energy.

[1] Our research note on GoO use showed that 126m of environmental levies and taxes were avoided by energy utilities using European certificates last year.

[1] Ofgem derogation letter to Good Energy

For further information on the impacts of the UK average fuel mix see https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-mix-disclosure-data-tables

For further information on the health and environmental impacts of coal, gas and nuclear see:
– Coal (toxic air pollution): http://www.ukhealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/UK-Health-Alliance-A-Breath-of-Fresh-Air-Final-Report.pdf
– Gas (emits CO₂): https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg3/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter7.pdf
– Nuclear (radioactive waste): http://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/about-radioactive-waste/how-is-radioactive-waste-produced/