Household

The website included a page titled “100% Renewable Energy”. The webpage provided information on renewable energy in Ireland together with information on the supplier fuel mix disclosure.

Under the section headed “Where does my renewable electricity come from?” it stated:
“When you turn on the kettle or take a shower, it is impossible to say that you are using renewable energy in that moment. This is because your energy comes from the national grid which pools energy from all sources.

This is how the system works. But we want our customers to know where their energy is being sourced from and to make this as sustainable as possible. This is why we buy Guarantee of Origins that certify the energy used is from a renewable source.

We also invest in renewable generation, and generate electricity from wind, solar and other sustainable sources across Ireland. Although we can’t verify the source of energy used at a particular moment, we can confirm all your electricity plan goes towards funding sustainable projects and green generation across the grid.”

The complainant, Senator Lynn Boylan, objected to the advertisement on the following grounds:

Issue 1:
The complainant said that their understanding of the term “all your electricity plan” was that it meant the money they paid Energia as a customer.

The complainant believed that the claim “we can confirm all your electricity plan goes towards funding sustainable projects and green generation across the grid” was in breach of the Code as they considered it was an absolute claim that had not been supported with a high level of substantiation.

They said that the claim was misleading on the grounds that some of the electricity supplied to customers was sourced from fossil fuel generators, later matched with guarantees of origin, therefore, some of their electricity plan was funding fossil fuel generation stations and as such, it could not be guaranteed that all their plan was funding sustainable projects.

Issue 2:
The complainant said that their understanding of the statement “across the grid” from the claim was in reference to the national electricity grid in Ireland. They said that guarantees of origin could be sourced from across the EU, and as there was no claim made that guarantees of origin were only sourced from Ireland, they believed that it was likely they were sourced from outside of the national grid, which would necessitate funding sustainable projects that were not ‘across the grid’ but rather were across other grids.

The complainant referred to the CRU’s Fuel Mix Disclosure for 2023 , released in December 2024, which they said showed that a significant portion of the energy supplied by the advertisers to their customers was from fossil fuels. It therefore appeared to the complainant that the claim ‘…all your electricity plan goes towards funding sustainable projects and green generation across the grid’ was misleading given they were not purchasing certificates in sufficient quantity to compensate for the power they supplied with fossil fuels.

https://cruie-live-96ca64acab2247eca8a850a7e54b-5b34f62.divio-media.com/documents/Fuel_Mix_Disclosure_2023.PDF

The advertisers responded to the issues raised.

Issue 1:
The advertisers said that the sentence had been taken out of context and full consideration had not been given to the supplementary information that they provided to customers to substantiate their claims and provide transparency in relation to their activities and their electricity plans and tariffs.

They said that they were a supplier who were regulated by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and that the CRU had a robust regulatory toolbox which must be followed by them and other suppliers. They said that the CRU had incorporated the responsibilities of reporting and explaining fuel mix to customers into the Supplier Handbook, Code of Practice on Marketing and Advertising, Code of Practice on Customer Sign Up and Code of Practice on Billing, therefore providing strict guidance to Suppliers regarding green products and fuel mix disclosure which must be provided to customers. They said that, in addition to providing updates such as the General Clarification on the Advertisement of Green Products and the General Clarification on the Code of Practice on Marketing and Advertising, to reinforce what is required by suppliers.

As a regulated supplier, their electricity products included a number of standard regulated charges. Section 2 of the CRU’s Supplier Handbook, titled the Code of Practice on Marketing and Advertising, Section 2.5 prescribed a list of information suppliers are required to present when marketing/advertising their tariffs to customers; such as at sign up when choosing a preferred plan customers are provided with key information about the product that the customer is being signed up to and the associated charges, including unit rate and standing charges, are explained to the customer. They said that the customer must also be informed the plan is 100% renewable, setting out such credentials and the customer was also provided with a copy of the terms and conditions as well as details of the applicable charges and what they pertained to.

They said that as well as the terms and conditions, they also provided extensive frequently asked questions on billing and charges to provide additional transparency to their customers on the various charges and elements of the bill such as ‘what is the standing charge’ and ‘what is the PSO levy’ and an explanation as to what they are.
They said that they had outlined on the webpage how the plan goes towards funding projects and generation stating –
“Every year, we work out our customers’ energy demand from the grid. Then we make sure we invest in an equal amount of renewable energy to match this need. We do this throughout wind farms, solar farms, other renewable generators as well as GoOs” (i.e. Guarantee of Origin)”.

They said that this outlined to the customer that their energy demand was coming from the grid with an investment in renewables for an equal amount. They said that they provided frequently asked questions on this page addressing what a guarantee of origin (GoO) is and how they operate in the market, which provided the customer with further transparency on how funds are allocated. In addition to the standard charges which the customer was informed about at sign up and through their bill, the information on the webpage outlined the methodology provided as to how a customer’s plan does go towards funding sustainable projects and green generation. They said that given the fact that the customer was provided with extensive information on how the various charges are applied and furthermore how the charges are allocated, they believed that the “all” in the sentence objected to had been taken out of context as it does not give consideration to all the supplementary information customers are provided on their plan.

Issue 2:
The advertisers said that they had provided clear information to customers on the webpage outlining their methodology as to how they could substantiate their claim by way of the paragraph which stated:
“Every year, we work out our customers’ energy demand from the grid. Then we make sure we invest in an equal amount of renewable energy to match this need. We do this throughout wind farms, solar farms, other renewable generators as well as GoOs” (i.e. Guarantee of Origin)”.

They said that they provided information on their own renewable portfolio, and they had published on their website extensive frequently asked questions to provide additional transparency around the use of guarantees of origin and the origin of the certificates. They said that they displayed to the public by way of a graphic how the scheme operates, and the graphic had also shown the physical generation as well as the sources and had displayed that guarantees of origin were imported from many locations across Europe. They said that it provided graphical information supported by extensive commentary to outline their approach and what that meant for the customer and that they had also addressed the importance of guarantees of origin, outlining why they matter and how they worked. They said that the European context was very important to the context of the complaint as Ireland was a member of the internal energy market and ‘across the grid’ was not limited to the physical flow in Ireland. They said that the SEM Committee Decision paper section on Transparency of Fuel Mix Disclosure stipulates that ‘the SEM Committee also notes that the Renewables Directive expressly provides that a guarantee of origin shall have no function in terms of a Member State’s compliance with Article 3’, where Article 3 refers national renewable targets and use of energy from renewable sources. They said that the detachment of guarantees of origin from the physical flow was therefore envisaged in the Renewables Directive and this was outlined in a graph on their website which outlined their imported certificates (guarantees of origin).

They said that not all generation projects relied on state support and GoOs provided an important alternative support mechanism for projects which electricity customers could support through “green electricity products”. They referred to a section of the Renewables Directive 2009/28/EC, Section 53 which states that;
“It is appropriate to allow the emerging consumer market for electricity from renewable energy sources to contribute to the construction of new installations for energy from renewable sources. Member States should therefore be able to require electricity suppliers who disclose their energy mix to final customers in accordance with Article 3(6) of Directive 2003/54/EC, to include a minimum percentage of guarantees of origin from recently constructed installations producing energy from renewable sources, provided that such a requirement is in conformity with Community law”.
Therefore, Irish consumers were supporting green and renewable energy projects in Europe, and this worked both ways, given that Ireland also exported 1,001,381 GoOs in 2022 according to the CRU’s Fuel Mix Disclosure 2022 Report. With the increase in renewable energy targets both in Ireland and Europe up to 2050, any additional financial support to finance renewable energy projects was welcomed and their electricity plans facilitated customers contributing towards this.

They said that they supplied electricity to domestic (homes) and commercial premises (businesses), offering a variety of products and plans to customers, which included products that were green source and 100% renewable. They said that they offered green source products which were 100% renewable electricity to all their domestic electricity customers. They also said that they had completed an independent audit for the 2023 Green Source Product Verification , which confirmed that all their domestic customers were on a green source100% renewable electricity plan. In regard to the CRU’s Green Source Product Verification (GSPV) Report 2023, they said that page 12 set out the specific fuel mix for Energia customers availing of their 100% green demand and non-green demand plans. They said that the area of the website where the information that was the subject of the complaint appears, was for their domestic (home) electricity offerings. Furthermore, they said that the CRU required that suppliers must update their marketing materials and bills within two months of the updated report to reflect the new fuel mix of a customer’s product.

The advertisers referred to CER/15/20513 Regulation of Green Source Products Decision Paper which sets out in the electricity retail market the approach for suppliers who wish to offer green products. They said that the CRU put in place a transparent and robust approach to provide a regulated approach on how this information would be provided to customers, including:

An independent verification process through the Single Electricity Market Operator (SEMO) that suppliers must avail of if they are offering green source products.

Suppliers provide the following to the SEMO: a green source submission, which details the total aggregate demand (kWh) of all the supplier’s customers who are availing of green source products and must complete an independent audit confirming the accuracy of the green source submission.

From these submissions, the SEMO determine and confirm to the supplier whether there is a surplus or a shortfall of Guarantees of Origins (GOs) to meet their green source product demand.

CRU publish a report on the outcome of the verification process, including such information as the fuel mix of non-green source product customers and any shortfall in GOs (data to be published on an individual supplier basis).

Suppliers must update their marketing materials, website and bills within two months of the updated report to reflect the fuel mix of a customer’s product.

The advertisers said that the CRU’s CRU20083 General Clarification on the Advertisement of Green Products document complements the Green Source Product Verification requirements and set out additional requirements for suppliers to adhere to when marketing or advertising a specific product.

https://cruie-live-96ca64acab2247eca8a850a7e54b-5b34f62.divio-media.com/documents/CRU_GSPV_Report_2023_411137.pdf
https://cruie-live-96ca64acab2247eca8a850a7e54b-5b34f62.divio-media.com/documents/CER15205-Green-Source-Products-Decision-Paper.pdf
https://cruie-live-96ca64acab2247eca8a850a7e54b-5b34f62.divio-media.com/documents/CRU20083-General-Clarification-on-the-Advertisement-of-Green-Products.pdf

The Complaints Council considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.

Issue 1 – Not Upheld:
The Council noted the concerns raised by the complainant, however, on examining the claim, the Council noted that the statement made was in relation to the advertisers’ investment in renewable energy and that information was provided which showed how the investment was made, including that it involved the use of Guarantees of Origin. The Council did not consider that the advertising was likely to mislead consumers and was therefore not in breach of the Code on the grounds raised at Issue 1.

Issue 2 – Not Upheld:
The Council noted that the complaint at Issue 2 related to the use of ‘across the grid’ in the sentence ‘Although we can’t verify the source of energy used at a particular moment, we can confirm all your electricity plan goes towards funding sustainable projects and green generation across the grid.’ While they noted that earlier text had referred to ‘national grid’ (This is because your energy comes from the national grid which pools energy from all sources), they considered that context had been provided by way of text and graphics for the term ‘across the grid’ and therefore, they did not consider that the advertising was likely to mislead and was not in breach of the Code on the grounds raised at Issue 2.

Further Action:
No further action required.