Enabling green power purchasing for your business community

Enabling the purchase of green power through a portfolio arrangement can be a powerful tool to support councils in their commitments towards emission reduction.  Working with your business community to encourage  them to purchase their power responsibly through a collective effort is the answer to reaching your council’s net zero goals. But where do you start with the administration and negotiations for such an arrangement?

Connecting businesses to a portfolio to buy green energy is easier than you would think.

Energy procurement specialists like Edge Utilities are adept at using the power of bulk purchasing to help businesses achieve goals, such as ensuring they are buying green electricity, and it can also lead to savings in many cases. In addition to sourcing energy through sustainable suppliers, they will negotiate and contract on behalf of the businesses, and by having support from a consultant who can take an aggregated portfolio approach widens the opportunity for those businesses to define and meet their desired outcomes.

So how can this be rolled out across a council or community with thousands of businesses?

Using the council’s connection to all the businesses in an area and great communication you can work with a businesses like Edge Utilities to encourage business owners to purchase their power through the portfolio aggregation arrangement. This will enable the majority of the jurisdiction to be buying green power, with the joy of someone else managing the administration through a custom built portal, or in some cases with a little marketing budget a microsite, branded as a council initiative.

Each business will still have their own contracts and power bills, but by joining the portfolios to a large proposition, they can tap into the benefits of buying renewable energy and potential savings through bulk purchasing.

Why do it?

One word, emissions. Collectively the businesses in a council area would be responsible for a large percentage of the emissions in the area,  and due to government legislation, most councils will have committed to reducing those emissions.

Setting up the opportunity for businesses to make an easy transition to purchasing renewable power in your council area will certainly support emission reduction goals.

The benefits are:

1. Emission Reduction: Encouraging renewable energy procurement for the businesses in that area, can enable councils to actively reduce their carbon emissions.
2. Simplicity: Having expert energy providers manage it on your behalf allows businesses within your constituent access to an easy option to know they are buying green energy, as well as have the contractual admin managed by someone else.
3. Education: Offering a service like this to the businesses in your council area through a specially designed portal, will give you the opportunity to educate your community on energy consumption.
4. Potential cost savings: The more businesses that join the portfolio the more opportunity portfolio managers have to make potential savings on energy through bulk purchasing.
5. Demonstrating Leadership: By providing an easy to use, admin free opportunity for local businesses to move to green power, councils can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and set an example for other organisations to follow.

How to do it – The portfolio model

Energy partners like Edge Utilities  work with councils to help communicate with the businesses in the area and enable the switch to green through a customised portal, to sign up to join the portfolio. The actual contracts are held individually by each business, they will all receive their own bills.

There is no cost for the re-contracting service, much like mortgage brokers there is no out-of-pocket cost to the council or individual businesses for the use of our services. We are remunerated by the retailers we set up the contracts through, making it a win win situation for emission reduction goals, potential savings for the businesses and the opportunity for the Edge Utilities Power Portfolio (EUPP) to grow.

The council’s job therefore becomes purely engagement and education, notifying businesses that they have created the opportunity for a simple switch to contribute towards your net zero goals by joining the portfolio.

Overall, communities purchasing renewable energy through a power portfolio can provide a cost-effective and reliable way for councils and business communities to transition to net-zero emissions and contribute to a more sustainable future.

 

The team Edge Utilities are passionate about renewables and sustainability, we are energy brokers with an eye on the planet. We are committed to helping councils and business communities reach their net zero goals through renewable power purchasing agreements (PPAs) and smart portfolio management.

To discuss options and plans for your community contact us at save@edgeutilities.com.au  or call us on 1800 334 336 to discuss.