Good Energy diversifies into gas supply

In a bid to diversify its customers base, UK renewable electricity company Good Energy has launched a trial that will see it supply domestic gas as well as green electricity.

All of the big six energy suppliers in the UK supply both electricity and gas, and Good Energy is framing the move as an attempt to win customers from its mainstream rivals.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy, said the company has tested its gas systems with a small customer base and is now trialling a gas tariff on broker sites before a planned full launch of the tariff to existing and new customers in 2009.

"This is a customer-driven decision," she said. "More than half of our customers wanted this so they could have all their services from one supplier."

Gas will primarily be offered as a dual package with electricity rather than a stand-alone product, she added.

In conjunction with the gas offering, Good Energy will also launch a Renewable Heat Incentive to reimburse those customers generating their own heat from renewable sources, reducing their gas and electricity use in the process.

Initially, the initiative will only cover solar-thermal systems, but the firm intends to fund research to improve and expand the scheme to include heat pumps, biomass and micro-combined heat and power (CHP) technologies.

"We want to get to a point where we don't have to supply gas at all," said Davenport. "Our aim is to get customers on board, and then pay them to generate their own heat so we can take gas out of the equation."

More than 25,000 homes and businesses across the UK have already switched to Good Energy, which takes its electricity from more than 400 independent renewable energy generators providing power from wind, small-scale hydro, solar power and sustainable biomass plants.

In a report from the National Consumer Council entitled Reality or Rhetoric? Green Tariffs for Domestic Customers, Good Energy was rated the greenest energy supplier in the UK.

It is also profitable, having posted profits of £242,317 in the first half of 2008.