Green Party want 'not-for-profit' London energy firm
The London Energy Company (LEC), which would promote energy efficiency programs and renewable installations across the capital, is the latest in a series of plans to create competitive council-owned energy firms, with the LEC hoped to follow the success of initiatives such as Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy and Bristol Energy Cooperative.
The LEC, which would handle TfL’s significant and growing electricity requirements and provide clean energy to London’s fuel-poor population, has been proposed by Jones as an alternative to the current License Lite plan, which would allow the Greater London Authority (GLA) to buy electricity from decentralised energy (DE) generators in London and sell it to TfL.
The proposed firm would directly compete with mainstream energy suppliers, while also providing an additional income stream that could potentially fund Mayor Boris Johnson’s energy and climate programmes.
Jones emphasises how London has missed its energy efficiency retrofit targets by a wide margin, delivering only a third of the solid wall installations initially targeted and a fraction of “easy measures” such as draught excluders.
“This failure makes a mockery of our efforts to tackle climate change. It also lets down a significant number of households that are fuel poor and live in cold draughty homes with high energy bills,” she said.
“London therefore needs a new energy efficiency policy that understands the challenges of this urban environment with a series of measures that Londoners latch on to. By setting up an Energy Supply Company the Mayor of London will have a far greater ability to deliver on his climate change targets and to tackle fuel poverty.
“Once established it could use income generated to reduce energy bills through funding energy efficiency programmes, support the uptake of decentralised generation, and provide specialist advice to help London households struggling to pay bills, or those on pre-payment meters.
“Bristol and Nottingham's municipal energy companies will be supplying homes as well as businesses, and so should the Mayor of London."
The LEC would focus on boosting the uptake of domestic solar panels in London, while also aiming to halt increases in TfL’s energy bills, which are expected to rise by £30m over the next five years.
