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What is Fuel Mix?
Think of Fuel Mix as a "nutrition label" for electricity. The Fuel Mix provides information about the energy resources used to generate electricity that is supplied into the power grid. Just as a nutrition label provides information about calories, fats, ingredients, etc helping you know about the food you eat, the fuel mix provides information that can be useful as you shop for electricity.
What information does fuel mix disclosure provide?
Electricity can be generated in a number of ways. It can come from renewable resources such as biomass and waste, geothermal heat or steam, solar energy, rivers or small hydroelectric reservoirs, and wind energy; or, it can be produced from resources such as coal, large hydroelectric reservoirs, natural gas, or nuclear fuels. The fuel mix describes the sources of electricity that is supplied into the National Grid. Each electricity supplier must display information about the energy resources represented by their contracts with electricity generators.
Where and when will I see information related to Fuel Mix?
Since March 2005, Electricity Suppliers have been required to include the fuel mix information in all promotional material. Furthermore, your Electricity Supplier must send you an update with each bill you receive. In the case of pre-payment meter customers where only an annual statement is produced then the required is that you will be provided with the fuel mix at that time.
How do I know that the information is reliable?
A verification process is in place to minimise fraudulent claims. The provision of the fuel mix information is a licence condition which is classed as a "relevant condition" under the Electricity Act 1989. This means that should a supplier provide information that is not prepared in accordance with the requirements of the licence condition, it will become an enforcement matter for the Gas and Electricity Markets authority.
Will my electricity be different?
Keep in mind that the actual electricity you use will be indistinguishable from the electricity used by your friends and neighbours. This is unavoidable because everyone is served through the same transmission and distribution system. The fuel mix information cannot tell you about the electricity that you actually use in your home; instead, it tells you where your pounds are going.
If you purchase electricity generated using natural gas, for example, you are paying a natural gas-fired plant to generate electricity and to feed it into the main power grid. Since it is impossible to track the flow of electricity on the grid, however, there is no way to identify the actual power plant that produced the electricity you consume in your home. But it is possible to track the pounds you pay for electricity. Your electricity pounds will support electricity generation from various energy resources in the proportions listed within the fuel mix.
Just because you can't identify which power plant generated the electricity you consume doesn't mean that your choice doesn't make a difference. Your electricity choice does make a difference, because you decide what kinds of electricity are supplied into the electricity grid. Over the long term, your purchasing decisions will help determine what kinds of power plants are built to serve the UK 's electricity needs.
