UK energy company loses license over unpaid renewables obligations

“As long as the wind blows, the sun shines and the sea is moving we will deliver price stability in a volatile market.”

As it turned out, only one part of that proud statement on the opening page of the website of U.K. energy company URE Energy has proven to be correct – it certainly is a volatile market.

Electricity regulator Ofgem this morning announced it had revoked the electricity supply license held by URE – based in the county of Buckinghamshire, west of London – after repeated failures by the business to fulfill its renewable energy requirements.

Under Ofgem rules, electricity suppliers unable to meet their quota of renewable energy generation must pay into the regulator-run buy-out fund or present Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) purchased from clean energy generators.

Missed payments

The regulator said Gerrards Cross-based URE failed to pay £209,000 into its buy-out fund by the end of last August after falling short of its renewables requirements in the 2017-18 fiscal year. The company subsequently failed to present ROCs by September 1 or to make a late settlement with Ofgem by the end of October.

URE was then given the option of making monthly payments by the end of March, along with Manchester-based rival Eversmart Energy. The latter energy supplier duly paid up but URE failed to do so and then failed to heed a final demand and has lost its license as a result.

The news came two days after rival energy company and residential solar panel installer Solarplicity became the 13th company to disappear from the electricity supply market since the start of last year.

Hertfordshire-based Solarplicity, which The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday intended to continue its panel installation business, withdrew from the market after an order was issued by Ofgem requiring it to pass on renewable energy subsidy payments collected from customers.