Renewable energy supplier Good Energy has unveiled a new service for electricity generators with feed-in tariffs (FIT) to register them for the Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) scheme.
The REGO program is designed to provide consumers with clear information about the share of energy suppliers source from renewable energy sources, while also allowing companies to demonstrate their green energy purchasing when reporting their emissions.
However, FIT microgenerators – the usual owners of small solar installations – have historically been excluded from the program due to the complex and time-consuming process of registering as a FIT. As such, Good Energy has now worked with UK energy regulator Ofgem to design its new FIT REGO Boost service, which streamlines the registration process for FIT generators.
The scheme is open to participants in Good Energy’s FIT programme, which closed to new entrants in 2019 and currently covers more than 180,000 customers.
Nigel Pocklington, CEO of Good Energy, said: “Microgeneration has been historically undervalued in our energy system. Not only has the power supplied by small-scale solar generators to the grid been underestimated, but schemes available to larger producers, such as REGOs, have not been available to them.
“At an individual level, this service will ensure that our FIT microgenerators are fairly rewarded and recognized for the contribution they make to renewable energy production. And at a macro level, it will help to better assess the contribution of microgenerators, make solar energy generation as attractive as possible and encourage more people to produce their own clean energy.”
Good Energy notes that it is a “long-standing critic” of the way some energy suppliers abuse the REGO system to “mislead consumers” by using REGO certificates to greenwash fossil fuel energy purchased through the wholesale market. The company has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the REGO system; in 2023, it launched hourly energy matching for its business customersand last month it was one signatory of an open letter to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, demand that the government make efforts to accelerate reforms of the REGO scheme.
Kit Dixon, head of policy at Good Energy, added: “While the REGO system is imperfect, it is the way in which generators are certified to produce renewable electricity, and as such small-scale FIT generators have every right to to have access to.
“Change is needed to bring more transparency and innovation to the market, so that consumers know that their supplier is actually working to decarbonize electricity consumption. A small part of this is ensuring that all renewable energy producers have access to the support they are entitled to, regardless of their size. This is what our FIT REGO Boost service helps to achieve.”
