One of the UK’s biggest energy providers E.ON looks set to be the first of the Big Six to have met all of its energy efficiency targets set by the Government and ahead of schedule too. The energy company is just waiting for official confirmation from energy regulator Ofgem.
As part of set Government targets E.ON has played its part in helping vulnerable communities across the UK to become more energy efficient and has enabled tens of thousands of households to reduce their energy bills by making their homes better insulated through the installation of loft insulation and cavity wall insulation.
Under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) a whopping 880,000 home insulation measures have been carried out to improve homes whilst more than 14,000 social and privately owned properties have benefited from a complete package of energy efficiency measures including the installation of new energy saving boilers and solid wall insulation in some of the country’s most hard to treat homes to heat pumps and even solar panels.
Energy providers were tasked with meeting energy efficiency targets under the two schemes by the end of 31 December 2012, with final figures to be reported to Ofgem by 31 January 2013. Once all the data has been collated Ofgem has up until the end of April to report the final and binding totals to the Secretary of State.
According to the Government the CERT scheme alone required energy providers to make an investment of £3.2 billion to carry out carbon reduction measures to homes across the UK. A large chunk, 40%, was aimed at ‘priority groups’ including the over 70s and families on low incomes with another 15% of the target aimed at a ‘super priority groups’ which comprised of society’s most vulnerable. Around 90,000 households across 4,500 eligible areas would benefit from a whole house approach to energy efficiency under the CESP scheme.
Commenting on their energy efficiency achievements Tony Cocker E.ON UK Chief Executive said: “From Falkirk to the Isle of Wight and from Port Talbot to Kent, we’ve made people’s homes warmer, improved their quality of life and helped reduce fuel bills.
“We cannot control many of the external costs that make up a customer’s energy bill but we have proved by meeting these obligations, subject to final verification by Ofgem, that we will do what we can to help people reduce their energy consumption and cut their bills.”
Mr Cocker added that he was extremely proud of his team because despite the challenging targets they had worked tirelessly and had managed to help tens of thousands of people. Now Mr Cocker is calling on the Government to work together with the industry in delivering the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme and to encourage households to seek out and apply for the help they are entitled to.
With the CERT and CESP schemes no longer available, the ECO will replace them to provide energy saving home improvement measures to vulnerable energy consumers including those who live in hard to treat homes such as period properties as well as households on low incomes.
To read more about the newly introduced Energy Company Obligation go to www.ofgem.gov.uk
