Are you in control of your homes sustainability?
CLPM’s Sustainability Guru Tony Duffin gives us his views.
Get in control of your own homes energy usage and tariffs.
Do you trust the quality of vegetables from your own back garden over those bought from a supermarket?
Do you support fair trade products because you see sense in the producer of an ethically produced product being properly rewarded?
What about electricity and green tariffs?
I think I may have uncovered the way to take control and ensure you are getting the best value and giving the most benefit. Firstly I will just explain a little of the technical background.
I have recently been assisting our Sustainability Director on a project and part of this involved some research and explanation of ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates).
Put very briefly:
- These are awarded by Ofgem to bulk generators of renewable electricity e.g. 2 ROCs for each MWh of electricity produced by offshore wind turbines.
- Licenced Electricity Supply Companies are required to hand back to Ofgem a minimum of 0.15 ROCs for every MWh of electricity they sell to you or I.
- ROCs are sold by renewable generators to suppliers and this increases the business case and makes otherwise expensive offshore wind affordable to generate and buy.
- A certified ‘Green Tariff’ will require additionality (an increased number of ROCs per MWh) to be handed back to Ofgem in order to make the electricity ‘Green’
- All electricity is essentially the same but it is the ROCs that make it green. Green Tariffs work because the more ROCs that are attached to your electricity the greener it is and if you would like to buy electricity that comes from offshore wind then you need to buy electricity that has offshore wind ROCs attached
The obvious question
Tony then asked an obvious question for a Sustainability Director – “Can I buy a ROC and give it to someone for Christmas as the ultimate ‘Green’ present.
We looked into it and it seems that the answer is Yes, you can. It will cost you about £45 per ROC and you will receive a code that identifies a digital certificate on the Ofgem database.
It then occurred to me that perhaps the answer to David Cameron’s problems of complicated energy tariffs and confusing ‘Green Wash’ is to take matters into your own hands and create your own ‘Green Tariff’. Perhaps it would go something like this:
- You sign up for whichever electricity tariff you wish. This could be the cheapest you can find or the one that gives you good customer service
- You decide how green you want to be and whether you particularly want to support a type of renewable energy
- You buy the appropriate number of ROCs and retire them to Ofgem
Worked example
An average home may use around 3MWh of electricity per year. If you wish to support offshore wind for example you would need to buy ROCs that have identifying codes for offshore wind farms and then retire them to Ofgem. Offshore wind is worth 2 ROCs per MWh so if you wanted to give this energy generation your full support then you should buy 2 x 3MWh’s worth per year (6 ROCs = £270). This will mean that you own and retire all of the ROCs associated with your 3MWh’s of wind energy and none can be sold to support dirty electricity from coal or oil etc.
It seems to me that you can put yourself in control, support ethical producers of electricity and make sure as much of your money goes to them as possible. You can also buy as little or as few ROCs as you can afford which means you can be as green as your pocket allows.
If you’re carrying out a major building project and would like to understand how CLPM can help you get the best result while saving you time, money and stress then do get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!
Call 01923 896550, email info@cl-pm.com or complete a contact form.
