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Renewable energy supplier Good Energy has taken aim at Ovo in a scathing blog post about the latter’s green credentials.
Earlier this week Wiltshire-based Good Energy topped the list of the 20 worst suppliers for non-compliance with social and environmental schemes and was given a score of 48 for 45 separate incidents – a ranking which it angrily denounced as unrepresentative.
However in the fiery blog published on Friday (29 May) senior communications manager Ian McKee slammed Ovo’s green energy claims. He began by highlighting a breakdown of Ovo’s electricity fuel mix for the period April 2018 to March 2019 in which it had 212 grams of C02 per kWh compared to the national average of 208 grams.
“The government has not published final figures for 2019 yet, but it has been reported that renewables generated as much as 39 per cent for a full quarter in 2019. Ovo’s higher than average carbon intensity is due to a reliance on fossil fuel gas and no nuclear, but it shows barely better than average levels of renewable power,” McKee said.
Ovo said it does not use nuclear in its mix as even though nuclear is less carbon-intensive than other fossil fuel alternatives, it believes“there is no safe, reliable solution” for dealing with the radioactive waste, adding that it does not want to put any dangerous waste in the ground.
“We’ve also completely removed coal from our mix because it’s the most carbon-intensive energy source around,” the supplier’s website states.
— Good Energy (@GoodEnergy) May 29, 2020
Furthermore, McKee takes issue with Ovo’s ‘green electricity’ £60 premium which ensures the supplier submits enough Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates to cover supply.
He continues: “Those REGOs, however, cost Ovo in the region of £1 per average domestic customer. Where does the remaining £59 go? Well some of it goes toward tree planting. Ovo promises 5 trees planted for each of its green upgrade customers. If you were to go by The Woodland Trust’s donation suggestion of up to 10 trees per £15 that’s roughly £7.50 per customer.
“It’s not clear whether this is per year or a one off. But let’s be charitable and assume it’s per year, how does Ovo spend the other £51.50? On buying renewable power from generators, surely?”
McKee then references a Which? report into green energy tariffs last September which pointed out that Ovo does not buy any of the electricity it supplies direct from renewable generators, nor does it own any of its own renewable generation sites.
“Meaning 100 per cent of the ‘renewable’ power it supplies is greenwash — it does effectively nothing to support the growth of renewable generation in the UK. And don’t take my word for it on this point — the regulator Ofgem agrees”, McKee added.
He closed by saying while Ovo’s intentions to drive towards a net zero energy system and its ‘plan zero’ commitment to net zero emissions across its operations and supply chain by 2030 is laudable, its 5 million customers’ energy use makes for a much larger carbon footprint than its direct business.
“Bringing them on the journey to zero carbon can only work if it is done with transparency and honesty. And by actually supporting the generators in the UK which produce renewable power,” he added.
Ovo Energy declined to comment when approached by Utility Week.
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