The think tank Common Wealth has released research into what the public wants and expects from the newly announced GB Energy, and argues for a retail arm to the organisation.
The polling, conducted by YouGov, found that 36% of the public (and 53% of Labour voters) are expecting GB Energy to reduce energy bills.
Principal Analyst Adam Khan released a briefing to accompany the poll, setting out how GB Energy can launch a supply arm to sell energy directly to customers, translating clean energy into lower bills. It argues that an immediate priority for GB Energy must be translating publicly generated energy into genuinely lower bills for consumers, both as an end in itself, and as the means for building durable support.
To achieve this, alongside owning and operating renewable generation assets, the briefing argues GB Energy should include a customer-facing supply arm to help overcome inefficiencies and redundancies in the retail and wholesale electricity markets.
A ‘public option’ retail arm of GBE would open up policy space to translate low-cost clean energy generation into durably lower bills, guarding against a repeat of the energy crisis.
Common Wealth argue that a GBE public option for retail electricity will provide a powerful lever to bring greater coherence to the current path of electricity system restructuring. This will allow for progressive pricing policies, in which poorer households pay less, and a gradual decommodification of electricity.
GBE’s retail arm would sell electricity directly to consumers and businesses and serve as the direct counterparty for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Contracts for Difference (CfDs) with private renewable generators and GB Energy owned generation.
This initiative would bypass the wholesale private market and its marginal pricing system, allowing clean, abundant energy to be sold at low cost. The GB Energy retail arm will enable households and businesses to directly purchase their electricity from GB Energy.
Forthcoming work from Common Wealth will further examine the details of the design of GB Energy, including how a public clean energy company can be delivered with genuine ambition.
Mathew Lawrence, Director of Common Wealth, said:
The public are clear. They want a retail option so people can buy homegrown clean power direct from GB Energy. What’s more, Labour’s new coalition expects GB Energy to cut their bills. The best way to deliver is to create a public retail option to translate renewable energy into lower bills and economic security.
Adam Khan, Principal Energy Analyst, said:
To lower bills by the next election, bring greater fairness to pricing, and greater coherence to the power system, Great British Energy needs a retail arm.
