Catch up on our webinars from Energy Live Consultancy Conference Online

We took part in two webinars at ELCC, which was a virtual event for 2020. It was fantastic to have some thought-provoking questions from TPIs, and we’ll be bringing you more content on these topics. In case you missed our webinars covering non-commodity costs, electric vehicles, carbon reporting, green gas and green electricity for supply chains, you can catch up on demand as well as downloading our presentations.

The energy industry post Covid-19: third party costs and green recovery

Our Commercial Director, Louise Innes, set the scene by talking about Covid-19. UK energy demand dropped during lockdown, with an increase in domestic usage countered by a decrease in industrial and commercial consumption. So Covid-19 has had an impact on non-commodity costs – such as government levies and use of system charges – because these are levied across the whole market.

Although the core commodity of electricity has been stable in price over recent years, non-commodity costs make up more than half of an average bill. These third party charges have gone up, and policy changes and charging reviews are on the horizon – important considerations for a customer’s energy strategy.

To help lead the discussion about how we as a nation fund our transition to a net zero carbon footprint, and ensure a green recovery following Covid-19, SSE has produced a greenprint for building a cleaner, more resilient economy. This five-point action plan covers investment in energy networks and electric vehicle infrastructure from government and energy companies – in addition, decision-making by individual businesses is key.

Louise said the number one opportunity to reduce costs is to use less energy. We can help customers use energy more effectively – looking at what they consume and when, different sites in their portfolio and how people use buildings. This goes beyond supplying electricity and gas into streamlining access to everything the SSE group offers, from digitalisation to demand side response.

EVs and green energy are here to stay: new solutions for a net zero world

We aim to make green energy more accessible to customers by being the bridge to SSE’s renewable assets. You might know that SSE is the UK and Ireland’s largest renewable electricity generator. Our Product Development Manager, Adam French, revealed our new green gas solution, running through certification and standards in the green gas sector.

Adam also explored how larger businesses could leverage economies of scale to give their supply chain access to our traceable SSE Green Electricity at a preferential rate, an approach we’ve pioneered with Telefónica. This reduces scope 3 emissions and makes a difference to the company’s carbon footprint.

This adds to our solutions for renewable energy to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions, energy management and smart energy efficiency. These are useful for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) which came in from April this year for larger businesses. Adam explained how billing information via our Manage my account section and our fuel mix figures can help customers produce SECR reports.

Finally, our Virtual Power Plant Director, Oliver McMillen, highlighted SSE’s strong pedigree in delivering electric vehicle infrastructure, through tailored solutions such as bus fleet electrification. We’re building on this existing EV capacity to provide fleet and workplace charging solutions, for example for depots and taxis. This encompasses the end-to-end process from design, financing options and rapid charging to billing and maintenance.

Thanks for watching, and if you’d like more information on anything we’ve talked about please get in touch with your account manager.