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Small suppliers have urged the Department of Energy and Climate Change to mitigate the impact of its contracts for difference (CfD) proposals on their businesses or risk killing them off.

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince last week wrote to energy secretary Ed Davey asking for an exemption for suppliers with fewer than 250,000 customers, as Decc has done for supplier obligations such as Cert and Cesp.

The letter warned that accurately calculating CfD costs could place “an intolerable burden on small suppliers”. Vince said it could mean “many small suppliers will go out of business”.

The call came as Ecotricity, Good Energy and Friends of the Earth (FoE) stepped up the latter’s Clean British Energy campaign, urging consumers to demand that the government supports UK renewables as the Energy Bill passes through Parliament. They also want people to switch supplier.

Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport said she understood the “self-control mechanism” reasoning behind the CfD but called for “a much simpler mechanism for the decentralised energy market”.

FoE head of campaigns Andrew Pendleton said “tens of thousands” of switchers would “boost the campaign” but the primary aim was “to get people involved”.

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 15 June 2012.

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