Retail renewable PPAs… what’s on the menu?

BRC-A Technical Director Dr Chris Briggs recently published an article in Ecogeneration on Corporate Renewable Retail Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), explaining how they have surged in recent years to allow smaller and mid-sized enterprises to access the benefits of renewables, and unpacks the suite of retail products currently available in the market. “In the early phase of the growth of renewable PPAs, deals were typically made directly between larger electricity users and renewable energy projects. This type of “wholesale PPA” is a financial contract with no connection to the electricity bill. However, one of the features of the Australian market has been the rapid diversification into mid-sized buyers – organisations who are significant electricity consumers but not big enough to underwrite a PPA themselves (generally between 5 and 50GWh a year).” “There is a spectrum of models, from fixed-price offers through to exposure to wholesale electricity prices when consumption and generation do not match. Different retailers are taking quite different approaches based on their view of what customers want.” Read the article in full here.