Five of big six energy companies drop green tariffs
Five of the “big six” energy companies have dropped their policies of offering green tariffs to new customers, in a move which green campaigners fear could undermine the national drive to tackle climate change.
Npower announced earlier in July that it was scrapping its domestic green electricity tariff for new customers, while EDF, E.ON, SSE and Scottish Power are also no longer offering a domestic green tariff for those wishing to switch. With all but one of the big six energy companies offering no 100% renewably sourced electricity tariff to new customers, the choice for consumers who are keen to support green electricity has been drastically reduced.
The development was “very disappointing”, said Ed Gill, head of external affairs at Green Energy, which offers 100% renewably sourced tariffs. He said: “This is not in the interests of consumers, or the UK more widely. We need to be calling for the big six – who sell some 90% of all electricity – to take responsibility for offering consumers a green tariff if we are to meet our UK targets and address energy and climate change issues. We are all for competition in this market place. But when the government called on energy providers to simplify their tariffs, this was presumably not what they had in mind.”
The companies which have dropped the tariffs for new customers said they have made the changes as part of a review of their products and alongside low levels of interest from customers, and claim to offer alternatives.
French-owned EDF Energy, for example, which withdrew its green tariff from sale in October 2012, said in a statement that it “remains committed to contributing towards a diverse, low-carbon generation mix.
EDF Energy encourages customers to sign up to products that are low-carbon backed. The company’s suite of “blue” products offer a guarantee that the electricity a customer uses will be matched by low carbon electricity generated by nuclear power stations. More than 1.4m energy accounts have switched to blue since its launch in April 2012.”
A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokesman said: “We’re making bills easier to understand, cutting the confusing array of tariffs currently on offer, and getting people off poor-value dead tariffs. A number of green tariffs remain on offer for consumers who wish to choose them, including many with smaller suppliers outside of the big six. Our reforms to the electricity market will mean increasingly far more of the power consumers use will come from green energy sources.”
The disclosure underlines further tensions between the government and energy providers over the cost and future direction of green energy policies. Last week Npower published research predicting that the average household bill will rise £240 to £1,487 by 2020, saying this was driven largely by the mounting cost of government green policies. Npower claimed energy company profits were not to blame for rising bills and said consumers should know the true cost of government investment in greener forms of energy production and efficiency programmes, which it said will be the main driver behind a rise in bills from £1,247 today to £1,487 by the end of the decade. Ministers rejected the claim, saying rising gas prices were the key driver and that efficiency measures would offest rises.
Also last week the consumer group Which? called on the government tolaunch an independent review of the energy sector similar to the Vickers report on banking as part of a bid to break the dominance of the ‘big six’ power providers and rein in soaring household bills.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said there was a need for more transparency in costs: “Hard-pressed consumers consistently tell us that the spiralling cost of their energy bills is one of their top financial concerns. Suppliers often blame price rises on an increase in wholesale costs, but it is impossible to work out if the price we’re paying is a fair one.”
Fonte: guardian.co.uk
