renewable energy without standing charge

kiridoh

Hi All,

Hope you can help in a search I don't seem to have much luck on.

I am currently looking for a green energy provider which doesn't take standing charge in its tariff. I found Solarplicity, but they only offer green electricity and not green gas, and I am looking for a dual fuel solution.

Any advice?

Thanks

molerat

Why no SC ? It is the overall annual cost that matters, even if you use no gas in the summer it could still be cheaper.
Why dual fuel ? Separate suppliers is generally cheaper, green or otherwise.

macman

AFAIK, the only suppliers offering 100% green gas are Green Energy and Bulb. Both have SC's though.
Ecotricity and Good Energy currently only derive a small part of their gas from green sources.
You need to decide which is the more important factor (And SC's are a red herring anyway, unless you are a very low user).

JStewer

macman wrote: »

AFAIK, the only suppliers offering 100% green gas are Green Energy and Bulb. ...

Only 10% of Bulb's gas supply is green

Bulb supplies 100% renewable electricity and 10% green gas...

https://bulb.co.uk/energy

kiridoh

I guess for me it's not just about the tariff, but about how environmentally committed the company is.

I don't get the point about standing charges being a red herring - for example Good Energy tariff has Electricity at 16.15p/kWh (SC 25.44p/day) and Solarplicity 14.4092p/kWh

So perhaps the paradigm where if there is a standing charge the p/kWh is lower doesn't really apply to the green energy market.

[Deleted User]

kiridoh wrote: »

I don't get the point about standing charges being a red herring

What is important is the total annual cost for your actual energy usage. (This is money saving site after all)
So it doesn't matter how the provider specifies the cost by using no standing charge or a standing charge and the energy used in kWh charge.
Just the total cost for the year for your estimated usage. (for the type of tariff you want - 100% green in this instant)

And the cynic in me says that the 100% green companies charge a premium because customer will pay it. Not necessarily because it is more expensive to product.

Also check what sources they class as green as you may not agree that nuclear energy is green (given the decommissioning/cleanup costs) but some companies do. (Germany and Japan don't think nuclear is green)

kiridoh

gsmlnx wrote: »

kiridoh wrote:

I don't get the point about standing charges being a red herring

What is important is the total annual cost for your actual energy usage. (This is money saving site after all)
So it doesn't matter how the provider specifies the cost by using no standing charge or a standing charge and the energy used in kWh charge.

Yes, of course, which is why my sentence continued:

kiridoh wrote:

Good Energy tariff has Electricity at 16.15p/kWh (SC 25.44p/day) and Solarplicity 14.4092p/kWh

So it doesn't matter if I calculate it on a yearly or monthly basis - Solarplicity is cheaper by ~1.8p/kWh whichever way you look at it.

_gsmlnx wrote:

Also check what sources they class as green as you may not agree that nuclear energy is green (given the decommissioning/cleanup costs) but some companies do. (Germany and Japan don't think nuclear is green)

Very good point, I never realised that any of these "green" providers could have considered nuclear energy green...

Anthorn

kiridoh wrote: »

Hi All,

Hope you can help in a search I don't seem to have much luck on.

I am currently looking for a green energy provider which doesn't take standing charge in its tariff. I found Solarplicity, but they only offer green electricity and not green gas, and I am looking for a dual fuel solution.

Any advice?

Thanks

As far as I can see from the admittedly sparse information from their pop-up wattbot when I requested a quote Pure Planet provide 100% renewable and don't have a standing charge for electricity nor gas but there is a membership fee for each of gas and electricity. It compares favourably with my current Super Saver Dec 2018 Scottish Power tariff. SP £511 p.a. Pure Planet £532 p.a. Eastern region. Their mobile app is a mush-have. Might be worth investigating; perhaps email them to verify the standing charge if any.
https://www.purepla.net
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5745767

[Deleted User]

If you use the moneysaving expert cheap energy club, you can filter for 100% renewable energy only. Foe me, Solarplicity is more expensive than my current fix. However there are several companies cheaper marked as 100% renewable including Outfox The Market (no standing charge but a monthly membership fee)
Again you would need to see the sources of their energy if you want to ensure if fits with you.

kiridoh

Anthorn wrote: »

As far as I can see from the admittedly sparse information from their pop-up wattbot when I requested a quote Pure Planet provide 100% renewable and don't have a standing charge for electricity nor gas but there is a membership fee for each of gas and electricity.

Anthorn, thanks a lot for this. I was really happy when I read your post, as Pure Planet looked absolutely perfect! However, their membership fee is £240 per year (£10 per month per fuel) which works out just like a standing charge.
Also Pure Planet is actually financed by BP (see here), which unfortunately is a bit of a green energy oxymoron (especially after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill).

I'll keep looking, and report back if I manage to acquaint a decent provider.

kiridoh

OK, so, despite of my best efforts, the search has proven completely unsuccessful.

I can say with a certain degree of confidence that there isn't a single green utility provider currently offering a no standing charge (or no membership) for green electricity/gas.

I have therefore decided to lower my search standards and look for a provider still offering 100% green energy, but can settle for carbon offset gas (i.e. not producing for example biomass-derived gas, but rather offsetting with CO2 certs the gas produced).

Any advice?