Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 31ST MAY - 6TH JUNE 2019 | 7 Interview A er a tough year during which several suppli- ers exited the market and the revelation that an "unprecedented" number of companies failed to pay their renewables obligation (RO) payments, Juliet Davenport is one industry stalwart who has a clear vision about what has to be done. Davenport founded Wiltshire-based Good Energy in 1999 and in the two decades since has seen the com- ings and goings of many start-up suppliers, a number of which exited the market in the past two years. Good Energy has more than 250,000 domestic and business customers, it owns two wind farms and six solar farms, and employs 240 people. Davenport was a climate scientist before she launched the company, and it was from this background that she developed an interest in the energy sector. "If you want to do something about climate, energy is not a bad place to start," she says. Speaking to Utility Week at her office in Swindon, Davenport reflects on the changes she has seen during her tenure and is keen to share with us the direction she believes the industry should now be taking. "I guess I've lived through quite a lot of change, I hope we have been part of precipitating that change. "What's fascinating is I think we are seeing more dis- ruption now than we have ever seen before. That's not unusual, it's a bit like an adoption U-curve. You'd expect it to be hard to begin with, and as technology prices come down you see this shoot, and that's kind of where I think we are at." There is indeed a myriad of choices for the modern energy consumer, with about 70 market players vying for new customers and challenging the long-held domi- nance of the big six energy companies. More recently no fewer than 11 players have le the scene since the start of 2018, with more departures expected in the coming months. The energy veteran is keen to share her thoughts on these supplier failures and where the sector's newer entrants may be going wrong. "I think what we have seen is that people have got away [until now] with coming into this market without having to buy power forward, therefore not having to change customer prices the whole time, they have been pretty lucky. But, says Davenport, if you look at the steady increase in power and gas prices that happened between April and October 2018, essentially it meant they then had to constantly put prices up or run out of money. This has led to the number large number of companies exiting the market. "These suppliers got used to having a really nice time, it's been really flat, they didn't need that much cash. They could come in and buy a supply licence for half a million quid and off you go." She also cites the capacity market, which was sus- pended towards the end of last year, as having an influ- ence on pricing. "When we came in, we had to put a bond up of a million pounds to show that we had enough cash to be able to trade for a year. That is a barrier but also, you might argue, that barrier is not a bad thing to have if it makes sure that people are thinking about their cash and how they use it." Industry regulator Ofgem has vowed to tighten up financial requirements in the coming months. Recent supplier failures have been precipitated by

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