Good Energy

The company was set up in 1997 as Ofex, an offshoot of the German power company Unit Energy Europe. The business was later bought by its management and changed its name to Good Energy in 2003.

In 2012, Good Energy Group was listed on the Alternative Investment Market and raised an additional £4 million of investment.

In 2014, Good Energy bought a £500,000 stake in Tidal Lagoon Power, where Davenport's then-husband Mark Shorrock was the CEO; the company was planning a tidal generation scheme using Swansea Bay. In 2018, the UK government decided not to support the scheme as it was not financially viable. Tidal Lagoon Power Limited entered voluntary insolvency in 2018 and was dissolved in 2024.

In 2015, Good Energy announced it had partnered with energy start-up Open Utility to trial the UK's first renewable energy marketplace, 'Piclo', where generators and consumers buy and sell renewable energy directly at prices they agree on. The six-month trial began in October 2015, and was funded by the DECC Energy Entrepreneurs Fund and Nominet Trust. It was also supported by Ofgem, the energy industry regulator.

As of the end of June 2016, Good Energy supplied 72,250 customers with electricity and 43,000 with gas. The company also administered over 124,500 feed-in tariff generation sites in 2016, making it one of the largest feed-in tariff administrators in the UK.

After announcing reduced profits for 2017, the company stated that it was seeking buyers for the remaining solar and wind sites, and would become a provider of decentralised energy services such as electric vehicle charging and battery storage.

Since June 2020, Good Energy is the controlling (50.1%) shareholder in Next Green Car Ltd, a Bristol-based private company which operates Zap-Map, an electric vehicle charging point mapping platform. Good Energy first bought a minority holding in 2019.

On 1 May 2021, Juliet Davenport stepped down as CEO of Good Energy, and was succeeded by Nigel Pocklington, previously Chief Commercial Officer of Moneysupermarket.com Group. In December 2021, the company called on the government to support energy companies and bill-payers through the energy price crisis.

As of June 2017, Good Energy had two wind farms (at Delabole, north Cornwall, and Hampole, South Yorkshire) and eight solar farms.

Delabole wind farm was the first commercial wind farm in the UK. In December 2008, planning approval was granted to Good Energy in order to refurbish (repower) the wind farm. The development was financed by an £11.8 million package including a £9.6 million loan from the Co-operative Bank and £2.2 million equity from Good Energy Group's own resources. In August 2010 the ten original turbines were replaced by four more powerful turbines and in February 2011 Delabole was reopened. In January 2013, Good Energy launched a community tariff offering people living near the wind farm a 20 per cent discount on their energy bills.

In December 2017, the company announced that two solar sites would return to community ownership. In November 2021, during the 2021 natural gas supplier crisis, Good Energy said it would sell its entire 47.5 MW generation portfolio, which had a net book value of £56.8 million and provided around 15% of customers' electricity. The sale to Bluefield Solar Income Fund was completed in January 2022 for £24.5m.

Criticism

In 2005 an article by The Ecologist magazine noted that Good Energy had not invested directly in constructing new renewable capacity, instead purchasing electricity from third parties: "The reality is that switching to Good Energy has made absolutely no immediate difference to the source of electrons that powered my kettle. My electricity, like everyone else's connected to the UK's national grid, still comes mainly from whatever the closest power station is [...] So what is happening? When a company offers you a '100 per cent green' tariff what it is actually saying is that for every unit of electricity you use it will provide the national grid with the same amount but from a renewable source."

Since then, however, Good Energy upgraded Delabole wind farm, replacing its turbines and increasing its output and seven other generating sites. It also provides support to over 800 independent generators in the UK.

Good Energy validates its claim of supplying 100% renewably generated electricity through the Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin scheme. It also stated that on its main tariff it retires Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) at an equivalent economic value of 5% above statutory compliance levels that apply to all electricity suppliers.

In 2009 Dale Vince, chief executive of rival company Ecotricity, accused Good Energy of deliberately misleading customers over Renewables Obligation Certificates retirement and called on the National Consumer Council to amend or retract its report. However, Good Energy issued an open letter as a rebuttal, indicating the issue was a fair accounting matter: the company retired additional "ROC financial equivalents" rather than undiscounted ROCs, which was perhaps not well communicated to customers.

In May 2012, Good Energy received criticism for using G4S Utility Services as their meter-reading contractor. Good Energy responded that the relationship was the result of their original contractor Accuread being acquired by G4S in 2008. Due to ethical considerations, Good Energy discontinued their contract with G4S Utility Services and in April 2013 appointed an independent company, Lowri Beck which is part of Calisen plc, as their exclusive contractor to provide meter reading services.

In early 2017, the animal rights group Viva! raised concerns about living conditions for pigs at a farm in Somerset which supplied slurry to a nearby anaerobic digester operated by Wyke Farms, from which Good Energy bought some electricity. The pig farm was reported to have closed in March 2018.