Exclusive: Ecotricity aims to deliver first biogas to UK this year

Ecotricity is forging ahead with plans to establish itself as a provider of green gas as well as green electricity, pledging to connect its first gas customers next month and begin delivering biogas before the end of the year.

The company announced the launch of its dual gas and electricity tariff late last year and is now in advanced discussions with a number of firms about delivering on its promise to provide customers with low carbon biogas made from organic material.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, chief executive Dale Vince said that the firm was moving forward with plans to emulate its green electricity model in the gas market, initially providing customers with conventional gas before using the money raised through their energy bills to invest in new renewable energy generation capacity.

"It is a more efficient to use biogas in the gas network than burn it to create electricity," he said. "We are talking to a few people about the first pilot project and hope to seek planning consent this year. We will be starting with anaerobic digestion technology, but in the longer term we have our eye on biogas that can be made from algae microbes."

The main barrier to the realisation of the plan is achieving the quality standards that biogas will need to comply with if it is to be injected into the grid. The Department of Energy and Climate Change published guidance late last year setting out the legal, technical and regulatory requirements of injecting renewable gas into Britain's gas grid, and there are some concerns that demanding gas quality requirements could force up the cost of injecting biogas.

However, National Grid is currently engaged in a project with United Utilities that aims to inject biogas into the grid from its waste water facilities in South Yorkshire, and confidence is growing that gas quality standards can be met at reasonable cost.

Vince said that Ecotricity was engaged in encouraging talks with National Grid about its plans to inject biogas into the grid. "National Grid has been very positive," he said. "We have to get the right level of gas quality agreed to make it economic, and at the moment it is more economically viable to burn biogas onsite to generate electricity than inject it. But we are expecting the government's Renewable Heat incentive to tip the scales in favour of injecting biogas – although, we will start work anyway as it is our view someone has to do this."

A spokesman for Nation Grid confirmed that the company was "massively supportive" of plans from Ecotricity and others to get biogas injected into the grid. "We see biogas making a significant contribution to UK carbon emissions and renewable energy requirements," he added.

Ecotricity's plans to initially supply customers with standard gas has prompted grumbles from some rivals that it is launching a green gas tariff that will not provide biogas to customers for some time.

However, Vince rejected the criticism, arguing that Ecotricity's gas customers would help fund the development of new biogas sites and that the company would provide some biogas in the coming months by purchasing supplies from the continent. "Biogas is already being injected into the grid in Germany and Holland," he added. "We will ship in some of the gas."

In the meantime, Ecotricity is expecting its new dual tariff to strengthen its appeal to both domestic and business customers. "Two thirds of everyone in the UK has a dual fuel tariff and our position as a supplier of just electricity was a barrier to people joining," he said. "Now we have made it easier for people to switch to Ecotricity."