Energy firms have been accused of potentially misleading customers with claims about their ‘green tariffs’.
Some firms that claim their electricity is ‘100 per cent renewable’ do not run any wind farms or even pay for a specific amount of power from green sources to match customer demand.
Instead, they can get away with making this claim by simply paying a small annual fee – of only £1.55 per customer per year – to a firm that does generate renewable energy. An investigation by Which? found a long list of firms that all claim to sell ‘100 per cent renewable’ electricity tariffs without generating renewable energy themselves or having contracts to buy it direct from generators.
Instead, they rely on what are effectively accountancy measures that involve paying small fees to buy Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates.
The consumer group said: ‘REGO certificates can be purchased by suppliers from renewable energy generators for as little as 30p to 50p per megawatt-hour (MWh).
‘With the average customer using 3.1 MWh of electricity a year, a supplier could buy REGO certificates to match this usage for as little as £1.55 and state their customer’s tariff is 100 per cent renewable.
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