The Good Energy Con

By Paul Homewood

 

 

Good Energy are one of those annoying, virtue signalling companies that think they have a mission to transform our lives.

 

https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/our-energy/our-fuel-mix/

 

According to their website:

All of the electricity Good Energy provides comes from over 1,000 different locations across the UK, harnessing local, natural sources like sunshine, wind, rain and biofuels.

In fact this is not true, as their own website later explains:

When you switch to us, we match all the electricity you use over a year with electricity sourced purely from renewables.

 In other words, when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow, they have to resort to other sources to supply their customers, who I think we can reliably assume do not switch off all of their electrical appliances instead.

The only thing that Good Energy do is to balance their sourcing of renewable energy over the year as a whole, buying in extra at times of surplus to make up for their shortfall at other times.

 

But what they also don’t explain to customers is just what all of this precious renewable energy is actually costing.

They do not give any figures of MWh sales, but based on their declared figures of 71000 customers and electricity revenue of £55m, we are probably looking at about 426 GWh.

Using their mix of solar, wind and bio, the subsidy costs paid via Renewable Obligation Certificates would amount to £23.6m in a full year.

These costs are of course not paid by Good Energy’s customers, but by all electricity users. If all of the cost was actually added to Good Energy bills, they would rise by 43%.

 

Interestingly, their Interim 2017 Report notes:

 

http://www.goodenergygroup.co.uk/financial-reports

 

So much for wind and solar now being competitive!

 

They have also done a deal with DONG to buy 12% of the electricity from Westermost Rough:

 

 

 

As an offshore site, Westermost Rough receives even larger subsidies, currently working out at £91.16/MWh. This would add about 70% to a typical bill.

 

Not everything in the garden is rosy though. Customer numbers peaked last year, and have fallen this year:

 

 

They also have a £500,000 investment in the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project (owned by Mark Shorrock, the husband of Good Energy’s Chief Executive):

 

 

Given the apparent lack of interest from the government in the lagoon, it is not clear what will happen to the money.