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Social landlords to form energy company |
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7 Nov 2014, 6:11 PM
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A consortium of Scottish social landlords is set to enter the energy markets with a groundbreaking, fully licensed company to generate and sell power to tenants.
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Our Power, founded by eight Scottish social landlords and a renewable energy charity, is in the latter stages of securing a license from watchdog Ofgem and plans to launch in spring.
The not-for-profit company, which will mark the sector’s first full foray into the energy markets, also has 27 other social landlords interested in joining- representing a combined 150,000-homes.
The nine founders of Our Power are:-
Berwickshire Housing Association
Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association
Clyde Valley Housing Association
Grampian Housing Association
Kingdom Housing Association
Renewable Power Exchange
Trust Housing Association
West Highland Housing Association
West of Scotland Housing Association
The company would initially buy energy wholesale and sell it to tenants, creating savings of up to £100 per year per household, but eventually plans to generate and sell power from renewable sources. It comes as a separate consortium of 39 English social landlords this week launched a pilot of a second company, Alliance Energy, to distribute energy to tenants from other suppliers.
Dawn Muspratt, project lead for Our Power, said: ‘We would buy [the energy] on the wholesale market in the first instance, but we would also want to build up a renewable energy base so we could generate energy of our own. Long term we would want to be investing in solar, hydro and wind at scale. The ambition over time is to generate 100% of the energy we sell,’ she added.
Our Power will be a stand-alone company, with all its profits reinvested in projects to alleviate fuel poverty. As an independent organisation, the financial risk would not be carried by members, said Ms Muspratt.
Under the scheme member landlords, which are currently all Scottish, will market the energy to current tenants as a way of cutting their energy bills, but will also convert the power supply of void properties.
Our Power is currently seeking investment from lenders as it puts the final touches on its business plan ahead of its launch. It is not revealing its projected turnover.
Nicholas Doyle, director of energy consultancy Adecoe, said: ‘Buying and selling energy is difficult to manage and get right. It’s something the social sector should be exploring - but they need to go in with their eyes open to the risk.’
Ms Muspratt added: ‘I believe we have got good mitigation in place and we have done our homework on this.’
Members will not have equity in the company and won’t be required to provide finance.
Meanwhile, south of the border, a small-scale pilot of Alliance Energy launched this week with 6,500-home Somerset-based landlord Alliance homes, with a view to launching the full company in the New Year. It is being established by the Carbon Savings Alliance as a ‘licence lite’ company, allowing it to sell power from energy companies to tenants.
Credits:: Pete Apps - Inside Housing
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