- All new ScottishPower domestic fixed price tariffs will now be supplied by 100% green electricity from our own UK windfarms.
- ScottishPower is already the first integrated energy company in the UK to shift completely to wind generation.
- ScottishPower windfarms generate enough green electricity to meet the average needs of 1.5 million homes.
- Today’s commitment takes ScottishPower’s 100% Green position even further. From today, all domestic customers taking a new fixed price tariff will be supplied by ScottishPower windfarms.
- By taking a ScottishPower fixed price tariff, customers can be certain that electricity is genuinely renewable energy and not just a result of REGO1 certificate trading.
From today, all new ScottishPower domestic fixed price tariffs will be supplied by 100% green electricity, generated by ScottishPower's UK Windfarms.
This is the latest step in ScottishPower’s campaign to support the UK’s transition to a zero carbon future. Building on the company’s decision to generate 100% Green electricity in 2018 and the launch of its Zero Carbon Communities research in 2019, this is a powerful intervention in the UK’s energy retail market that aims to help customers to make green choices,
All electricity for the new tariffs comes from the company’s windfarms across the UK, and energy generated by these will only be sold to ScottishPower’s domestic and commercial customers.
ScottishPower will reinvest money made from the green tariffs in new renewable generation – meaning the more people who take up the tariff, the more investment in green energy there will be.
Unlike many other green electricity tariffs on the market, ScottishPower’s new tariffs provide both the renewable electricity and its accompanying certificates – thus providing a clear benefit to the UK renewable industry – rather than buying these certificates elsewhere to "green up" non-renewable electricity.
Launching the new tariff, Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower said: "As the UK’s only end-to-end energy provider, we’re unique in being able to make this commitment. From today, anyone who signs up for our electricity on a fixed-price tariff can be confident that they are buying 100% green electricity – all of it is sourced from our windfarms.
"More than that, they will be contributing to building the next generation of renewable energy, because money made from these tariffs will go into developing new wind farms and other green generation projects.
"Across our Renewables and Networks businesses, ScottishPower invests over £7m every working day to deliver cleaner, smarter power for customers, and we already generate enough renewable electricity to power around 1.5m homes. This new approach builds on this investment and shows how we’re finding new ways to speed up the drive to net zero in the UK.
"With an increasing number of green tariffs in the market, it’s important that consumers understand how ‘green’ their tariff is in terms of supporting the UK renewables industry. This isn’t about playing games with bits of paper or certificates. This is the real deal – customers buying energy from renewable sources and helping us to build even more.
"As well as cleaning up the environment, we want to clean up how green energy is sold. My concern is that too many customers think they’re buying renewable electricity, when all they’re buying is a renewable certificate. Today, we’re calling time on this so-called ‘greenwashing.’
"Unlike some competitor offerings that simply buy up green certificates and don’t actually purchase the related renewable electricity, ScottishPower customers can be confident that their electricity comes from renewable sources, with all the electricity supplied from our UK-based windfarms."
Notes to Editors
1. In the UK, every unit (MWh) of renewable electricity generated from a windfarm or other renewable source is issued an accompanying certificate by our regulator, OFGEM. These certificates are known as REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin), and are intended to prove to the final customer that a given share of energy was produced from renewable sources.
However the certificate and the electricity aren’t always sold together. Some suppliers will buy the renewable electricity but not the REGO certificate, meaning that there are excess REGOs which other suppliers can buy to make their power appear green, when in fact they're supplying brown (non-renewable) electricity on the wholesale market. These REGO certificates are fairly cheaply to buy, from times of excess production across the EU.
According to the Energy Savings Trust, the greenest tariffs are where your energy supplier buys renewable (green) electricity and its accompanying certificates directly from generators, such as UK wind or solar farms, since this provides a clear benefit to the UK renewable industry.
2. Provenance of ScottishPower’s green energy. The 100% green energy supplied to ScottishPower’s domestic fixed product customers comes directly from our own windfarms. The Retail business buys all of the output of all of the onshore and offshore windfarms operated by the Renewables business through long-term contracts known as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). In any given year, the total green electricity supplied by the Retail business to its customers on green tariffs will not exceed the aggregated production of sites included in the PPAs.
This approach enables ScottishPower to guarantee that the electricity supplied comes directly from our windfarms. Today’s commitment to supply all new ScottishPower domestic fixed price tariffs from ScottishPower Renewables windfarms is based on arrangements whereby SP Renewables provides the electricity grid with equivalent power to that being used by ScottishPower Retail customers.
ScottishPower will publish details each year to transparently verify the source of green energy supplied to our domestic customers on fixed price tariffs.
Ofgem should oblige all energy suppliers to provide similar details to ensure that green marketing claims do not mislead customers.