Co-op Power to tender aggregated PPA for 100 GWh/yr

UK energy buying group Co-op Power is launching a tender together with two of its customers to jointly purchase 100 GWh of renewable energy per year, a statement showed on Tuesday.

Under what would be the UK's first co-operative power purchase agreement (PPA), the Co-op group will off-take the bulk of the output as the anchor tenant whilst helping open the collective avenue to businesses that otherwise might not have the power requirements to sign PPAs on their own.

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The joint PPA tender aims to tackle the buyers' Scope 3 emissions, which are greenhouse gas emissions generated from activities such as transportation, investments, goods and services purchases, or leased assets and franchises.

"It is vital that we continue to work with other businesses to reduce costs and reduce carbon, we know from discussions with our own supply chain that 60% believe they don’t have the resource to reach net zero alone," Michael Mahoney, energy procurement manager at Co-op Power, said.

Co-op Power has partnered with London-based start-up Zeigo to tender the PPA through its digital platform based on machine learning algorithms. The aggregated PPA platform facilitates the grouping of public and private sector energy buyers to collectively buy energy. Zeigo then connects them with renewable energy generators and suppliers. The platform hosts over 400 projects for a total capacity of around 21 GW.

The Co-op group already has long-term PPAs to buy energy directly from seven onshore wind and solar PV projects.