Council electricity tariffs and renewable electricity generation
Case reference FOI2024/01416
Received 20 August 2024
Published 2 September 2024
Request
I would like information about your council’s electricity sources in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information may be held by an estates department or similar.
In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:
a. Does the council have a 100% renewable green electricity tariff for all of the electricity that the council is directly responsible for, and is this tariff with Green Energy UK plc, Good Energy Limited or Ecotricity?
This includes all electricity that the council is directly responsible for, in council offices and any other buildings leased and managed by the council where the council pays the electricity tariff. This does not include homes owned or managed by the council. If unsure, please state your provider and tariff.
b. Does the council generate and use energy from waste? And if so, what percentage of the council’s total electricity use is powered by this/these energy from waste electricity sources?
c. Does the council buy directly from a local renewable electricity source or have its own renewable electricity sources? And if so, what percentage of the council's total electricity use is powered by this/these renewable electricity sources?
This includes council owned renewable electricity sources that are located outside of the council area, such as solar farms located further south to maximise energy generation.
Response
I would like information about your council’s electricity sources in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information may be held by an estates department or similar.
In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:
a. Does the council have a 100% renewable green electricity tariff for all of the electricity that the council is directly responsible for, and is this tariff with Green Energy UK plc, Good Energy Limited or Ecotricity?
This includes all electricity that the council is directly responsible for, in council offices and any other buildings leased and managed by the council where the council pays the electricity tariff. This does not include homes owned or managed by the council. If unsure, please state your provider and tariff.
A: The Council has a 100% REGO backed renewable energy tariff. The supplier is West Mercia Energy. This supplies all of the Councils own operational estate.
The Council also owns a number of industrial units that are rented out to local businesses. When tenancies change, the Council is obliged to take back responsibility for the utility supplies to cover the standing charges and incidental electricity use incurred when the unit is vacant. These are with whichever energy supplier was contracted by the previous tenants and are not 100% REGO backed renewable supplies. Supply to the vacant units was 0.35% of the Councils total electricity demand for 2023-24.
b. Does the council generate and use energy from waste? And if so, what percentage of the council’s total electricity use is powered by this/these energy from waste electricity sources?
A: Waste from Herefordshire is transported to an Energy from Waste plant in Kidderminster, operated by Severn Waste on behalf of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Councils. The energy generated is fed into the grid. There is no direct link between the electricity generated at the EfW plant and the Councils own consumption. The percentage use is therefore 0%.
c. Does the council buy directly from a local renewable electricity source or have its own renewable electricity sources? And if so, what percentage of the council's total electricity use is powered by this/these renewable electricity sources?
This includes council owned renewable electricity sources that are located outside of the council area, such as solar farms located further south to maximise energy generation.
A: The Council buys no electricity directly from generators, all electricity is purchased from an electricity supply company.
The Council has its own renewable electricity sources in the form of solar PV systems installed on Council buildings. Collectively these systems generated the equivalent of 7.07% of the Councils total electricity use in the FY 23-24. However, not all of this generation is used directly within the buildings with the installed PV systems. Some PV arrays do not have export meters and so there is no data to accurately determine how much of the generation is used directly by the Council. PV systems have been designed to minimise export and so the proportion used directly is estimated to be 6.7%
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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