Good Energy tops list for non-compliance with social and environmental obligations

Good Energy has topped the list of the 20 worst performing suppliers for non-compliance with environmental and social obligations in 2019.

As part of Ofgem’s supplier performance report (SPR), firms are scored between 1 to 4 (4 being for the most severe incidents) for any non-compliance with schemes such as the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), Warm Home Discount (WHD) and Renewables Obligation (RO).

The Wiltshire-based challenger brand was found by Ofgem to have a non-compliance score of 48 for 45 separate incidents. Energy giants Eon and Scottish Power were in second and third place, with scores of 41 and 39 respectively.

Good Energy received most of its points for data accuracy and misreporting issues under the FIT scheme that resulted in requests being approved on the basis of erroneous information. The supplier also received points for errors related to the verification of generation/export meter readings.

Ofgem said the total non-compliance score increased significantly from 543 in 2018 to 721 in 2019, principally due to an unprecedented number of suppliers who failed to meet their RO obligations within the 2017/18 and 2018/19 reporting years.

The regulator added that while the total non-compliance scores had remained stable under the ECO and WHD schemes, there was a small increase in the score for the FIT scheme which was still the highest by “quite some margin”. The rise was attributed to the introduction of a new requirement to verify generation/export meter readings once every two years that came into effect in 2019.

Ofgem said the most significant increase in 2019 was due to the RO scheme, with a vast majority of entries being payment related (i.e. the failure to make late payments and mutualisation payments by the relevant deadlines).

In response to the report Juliet Davenport, chief executive and co-founder of Good Energy, said she did not agree with Ofgem’s approach to the scoring, which she said was misleading

Davenport said: “We’re obviously really disappointed that Good Energy, which has always been an advocate for greater transparency in the energy market, is scored this way. We have made it very clear to Ofgem that the SPR and the way it operates particularly with the FIT is more likely to incentivise bad performance, than drive good.

“A supplier which has high standards and looks to report mistakes in the data it holds is more likely to receive high marks for non-compliance, than those that don’t bother. Meaning that potentially data will not be updated and will leave consumers confused, and with a false impression of actual performance. We will be contacting Ofgem again to see why they continue to pursue what we believe is a very misleading approach.”