Choosing a green energy tariff is only part of becoming more sustainable - how we use energy at home matters too. There are many ways we can improve that and energy suppliers have started helping their customers on that journey.
This is why Uswitch Green Accreditation is expanding to include special commendation in categories that the Green Accreditation Panel sees as most valuable at the moment for the energy transition. Commendation is awarded to suppliers by the Panel judging their individual submissions based on their individual merit.
Electric vehicles are the future and will change how we fuel our personal transport - making our energy use at home a lot more important. There is still a lot of work to do to make sure EVs are affordable and accessible to all customers but many energy suppliers are starting to do their part. This commendation recognises suppliers who go above and beyond in promoting electric vehicles and making them more accessible to customers.
This category combines supplier efforts in energy efficiency and heating. It recognises that our homes will need to be upgraded to make the most of future technology. This includes how we use energy at home; moving most of our usage to off-peak times; and changing how our homes are powered and heated, such as swapping gas boilers for heat pumps.
To reduce the costs of delivering energy, it should be able to be produced locally. Energy suppliers can help facilitate communities coming together and ensuring their homes are powered.
OVO is going well beyond just offering its customers a simple time of use tariff to promote an uptake of Electric Vehicles.
With innovative Kaluza technology, the tariff allows EV customers to separate their spend on their vehicle charging from overall home energy consumption, with a cheaper rate. The technology optimises the usage to make use of energy when it's cheapest and greenest. Along with its partnership with Vanarama on EV leasing, OVO brings something truly innovative in the market.
1 in 6 customers with electric vehicles are also Octopus Energy customers, with many also on a time of use tariff. This means customers can benefit from smarter, more flexible charging of their EV cars, significantly contributing to the reduction in carbon emissions.
Through its end-to-end proposition, including Octopus Electric Vehicles leasing, customers are given an easy and accessible route to adoption of electric vehicles.
A future home not only has to be carbon neutral, but also energy efficient to make sure it only uses the minimum amount of energy needed. OVO is delivering a holistic approach by installing heat pumps and retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient in projects mainly in Scotland and South West England.
Octopus Energy is highly commended in the future homes category for its efforts in promoting demand shifting. In the future, all customers will benefit from using energy in off-peak times, when energy is cheaper and greener. Octopus has already taken some of its customers on this journey, through Winter Workout and Big Dirty Turndown trials, that showed real results in when customers use energy.
The panel set the criteria that all tariffs are being assessed against, and will review the criteria annually, to ensure it reflects current market conditions, making sure you can always trust you are choosing a tariff that reflects best practice at the time.