Making your Net Zero journey a reality

A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) will help you to go greener and achieve your net zero targets, improving your energy security and reducing market price risk. PPA are long-term agreements between an energy consumer who wants to buy 100% renewable energy and the power producer.

Onsite PPA arrangements

The greatest benefits are delivered through onsite PPA arrangements. Giving you renewable energy with no third party charges – the network costs, levies and taxes that make up the majority of your energy bills – the power generation assetis physically installed and commissioned “behind” the metering point of an energy consumer. These are precisely specified to suit a site’s real-life demand and usage profile. Any excess energy generated can be also sold back to the market and is exported via your normal network connection. Energy generated can be sleeved into your existing supply contracts, offsetting the amount of energy usually taken from the grid.

• A personalised agreement covers the amount of electricity supplied, its price, and governance of the supply.
• PPAs deliver long-term price certainty for 5, 10 or 15 years and are a cornerstone of a fully diverse risk management and procurement strategy.
• PPAs can be physical, where energy physically flows from generator to user or virtual, where supply is managed through the National Grid balancing and settlement system.
• Onsite generation plant are typically funded by the energy consumer and delivered via a turnkey solution with a trusted external provider – these might also be seen as “corporate PPAs”.
• Options include direct wire connections or “wire over the wall” connections – from adjacent or nearby generating plant.
• PPA energy can also be sleeved into or offset against an existing energy supply contract.
• Standard industry practice is to outsource PPAs to a third party who manages the project and ongoing operations.

What do we do?

The Consultus Net Zero Pathway tool enables you to understand how private wire and PPAs can fit within your net zero mix.

We can then help with planning, evaluating site options, feasibility studies, investment grade audits (IGAs), carbon emission impact reports, analysis of cost savings, Board Packs, project management, network upgrades, funding, and tendering and settlement – all in line with your precise requirements.

We can take care of the complexity while you gain the benefits of more sustainable, lower cost energy. Consultus expertise includes:

• Construction and contracts including access to funding, wayleaves, access rights, title and deeds, operation and maintenance of infrastructure.
• Connection agreements covering how and where projects are hooked-up to the grid.
• Supply agreements including volumes and pricing of energy to be generated or provided, and accounting for the costs of renewable incentive schemes (ROCs, FiTs, REGOs).
• Customer supplier contracts that often need renegotiating based on import of PPA volumes, take or pay clauses, etc. using anticipated generation profile, and balancing risk.

A single turnkey solution for onsite generation

Our longstanding experience and resources in Energy Resilience means we can provide a complete solution to private wire generation. This combines world-class design and installation of prime generating equipment with unique trading and energy optimisation services.

Physical or ‘Wire over the wall’ – grid access to a Power Purchase Agreement

This is another type of physical PPA: generation assets do not directly supply an energy consumer but an agreement is made between generator and consumer to buy a set volume of energy. Electricity can be supplied through the normal grid network and balanced through the settlement system. This option means that generation assets do not have to be close to an energy user’s site.

With no direct connection between generator and energy consumer, this flexible and increasingly popular option has simpler contractual arrangements than a physical PPA but delivers similar benefits, including green energy and energy security.

In virtual or ‘synthetic’ PPAs, electricity is not supplied direct from green generating plant to consumer. Instead, the power produced is traded on the wholesale energy market. Electricity is delivered from the grid in the usual way, which means it is still subject to the usual third party charges. Generator and consumer agree a price per kilowatt-hour, as with a physical PPA.

Our unique net zero e-tendering platform connects energy consumers with 400+ greener energy generators, projects and initiatives right across Europe – giving you more options and greater choice in your virtual power purchases.

What do we do?

The Consultus Net Zero Pathway tool enables you to see how these virtual agreements can fit within your net zero mix. The degree of personalisation is entirely up to you, your energy usage and net zero aspirations.

Our experts can help you understand the market and options available, identify and select initiatives, and provide enhanced strategy support including supplier selection and sleeving within existing energy supply contracts – all in line with your precise requirements. Please get in touch

In addition to our Europe-wide e-tendering platform, we also directly manage diverse generation projects and assets, offering virtual agreements including the energy that is produced. Consultus is currently developing a 49 megawatt solar project in southern England to come online in late 2021.

• Solo – for energy users in excess of 30 GWh, this virtual option provides the widest variety of project types, with terms from 7-15 years. You can choose from numerous technologies and locations to meet your preferences, usage patterns and net zero aspirations, including solar energy, offshore wind farms and tidal power.
• Partner – energy consumers using more than 10 GWh can be grouped with 2-3 other organisations with complementary usage patterns and renewable project preferences. A diverse range of green generation projects and terms are available.
• Club – energy consumers using less than 10 GWh can also benefit through a shared consortium approach, taking energy from a more limited range of green generation projects and terms.

In this option, renewable energy is embedded in all of your current and future supply contracts as standard. The market has been moving in this direction for some time, with a rising number of renewable energy projects and assets now available. 40% of all contracts that we currently write are green. The cost of renewable energy continues to fall sharply while the number of green-only suppliers is growing.

Many corporates and all public sector contracts already specify the need for renewable energy on supply contracts. This should also be an option if you are working towards a PPA or if you are not in a position to enter a PPA.

By taking this greening option, you will still receive the certification you need, but you will still be paying a surcharge for your greener energy, and it is lower down the sustainability ranking so you may not achieve your net zero targets in the time frames required unless additional measures are taken.

What do we do?

• The free to use Consultus Net Zero Pathway tool enables you to understand how greening your supply contracts can fit within your net zero mix.
• Our procurement and risk team can take care of your tendering, purchasing and contractual arrangements to put renewables and sustainability at the heart of your energy supply contracts.

Please note, while it can contribute to achieving net zero, greening an energy contract is not recognised by some schemes such as the RE100 global initiative as a significant step towards net zero.

The idea is simple: “neutralise” the impact of your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in some way through either straightforward payments or by selecting and funding named projects.

Offsetting can be particularly useful to global enterprises with multiple locations that include places where other net zero options such as PPAs or VPPAs may not be possible or available.

Carbon offsetting is based on calculating how much carbon dioxide is emitted by your organisation or by a certain activity, and then funding a project or initiative designed to reduce carbon emissions by the same amount. This might be planting or conserving a forest, or helping to fund a wind farm or solar energy renewables project.

What do we do?

• The free to use Consultus Net Zero Pathway tool enables you to understand how carbon offsets can fit within your net zero mix.
• Two carbon offset portals available: UK-based projects and United Nations recognised projects.
• Choose the territories and activities you prefer.
• Enter how many tonnes of carbon you want to buy.
• Different costs per tonne of carbon can apply depending on the location and project involved.

This is the lowest tier of Green Energy & Carbon Offsets. These certificates can play a role in your overall net zero journey, all be it a very small one.

Energy supply contracts backed by the Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certification scheme are a way to “evidence” that the energy used comes from renewable sources and is therefore contributing to carbon neutrality. This can often be a first step in a wider-ranging sustainability programme. However, it has been noted that REGO certificates can be traded between companies and so may not be as representative of an eco-friendly approach as they may first appear. REGOs have been criticised as “greenwashing” unless additional and more proactive action is also taken.

What do we do?

• The free to use Consultus Net Zero Pathway tool means you can understand how renewable energy certification can fit within your net zero mix.
• REGO certificates is a way to show that supplies are ostensibly coming from renewable sources such as wind, solar and/or hydro.