BES Utilities supplying electricity from Renewable sources

petWill444

Taken from the BES Utilities website:

Through talking and listening to our customers, BES is aware that more and more businesses are keen to use electricity generated from renewable resources.

As such, we’re delighted that these official figures show we are way above the national average compared to other commercial energy suppliers. Over 60% of our supply is from Renewables, and as the national average is only 24%, that makes us proud to be one of the UK’s premier suppliers of energy from Renewables.

This is positive news, what do we think?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I think BES are furiously trying to improve their PR, but they are on borrowed time.


https://0lly.uk/category/bes-utilities/

petWill444

Thanks for that - I fail to see what relevance that link has regarding renewable energy... ? My question's aim was to discuss supplying electricity via renewable energy and the fact BES is miles ahead of the national average...

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Renewable is hardly a new thing. Business consumers can very easily choose a 100% renewable supplier if they wish. Bravo to BES for upping their game, but I doubt they are doing it for altruistic reasons - 100% renewable suppliers have been around for years so if BES cared that much they could have done something about it much sooner. I stand by my earlier statement - they are trying desperately to legitimise their business as they know it is under extraordinary scrutiny at the moment.

petWill444

A new industry report published this month has found that a clear majority of Small and Medium sized Enterprises want their energy suppliers to be more committed to the use of renewable energy

(72%) of SMEs wanted their suppliers to use more Renewables

Would you not class this as 'listening to the industry'?

macman

It's a meaningless statistic. Its easy for smaller and newer suppliers to claim high percentages of renewable sources, because they have no legacy plant (or, if a reseller, no plant at all). Big Six suppliers have historical investment in gas and nuclear plant, which despite adding the odd windfarm, still makes up most of their capacity, and will do for many years.
SSE has a higher proportion of renewables than you might expect, which is purely due to their inherited hydro capacity-but you wouldn't think of them as being particularly green.
What is a more meaningful measure is the rate at which suppliers are adding renewable capacity, in which case Ecotricity is way ahead of anyone else.

petWill444

Oh I see, thanks macman.

In regards to smaller suppliers then, how does this compare with others? (Taking Big 6 out of the equation). Will this become an industry trend amongst them?

For businesses looking to switch, do you think the source of the energy will become more researched when looking to switch?

naedanger

petWill444 wrote: »

Thanks for that - I fail to see what relevance that link has regarding renewable energy... ? My question's aim was to discuss supplying electricity via renewable energy and the fact BES is miles ahead of the national average...

The relevance is that anyone considering using a new utility provider should do research on them. (For example via google and look at more than just the top few links.)

I would also strongly suggest any business considering a new energy supplier insists on a written contract that they can check themselves before signing. They should not agree anything over the phone.

Business users have less protection than consumers so they should check any new significant contract carefully before signing. For example they should check independently that the prices are competitive, check the length of the contract, check how easily it is to switch during or at the end of the contract, check any onerous terms, check they understand all terms that apply etc.

Please note this post contains only generic advice and is not aimed at any particular business supplier.

petWill444

Hi naedanger,

I'm not talking about joining/switching suppliers. The only reason why I've mentioned BES, is because they're the company with the renewables story.

I'm interested to know how the industry have responded - what other suppliers have thought about their renewal supply? Is it becoming more of a 'nice to have' when they switch supplier?

It was worth mentioning:

Over 60% of our supply is from Renewables, and as the national average is only 24%

As I find that significant with the smaller suppliers.

macman

It's just greenwash. You'd expect most people to say that they'd like more energy to be sourced from renewables: you might as well ask them if they'd like world peace, and for Santa to turn up at Christmas.
You hardly need a survey to work that out.

Crinkmeister

It's a load of tosh. If everyone wanted 60% of their energy from renewables, the lights would be going out rather quickly.