London's Mayor should set up a green energy company under Transport for London (TfL), according to new proposals released today by Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones.
The not-for-profit energy company - dubbed the London Energy Company (LEC) - would generate and purchase low-carbon energy to run the capital's transport system and provide affordable clean energy to fuel poor Londoners.
A feasibility report into the proposal released on Friday suggested that the creation of the LEC would provide a better-resourced delivery vehicle for delivering the Mayor's energy and climate programmes than the current Licence Lite plan, which allows the Greater London Assembly (GLA) to purchase decentralised energy and sell it back to TfL.
Unlike Licence Lite, the LEC would be in competition with mainstream electricity and gas suppliers, and would be able to extend supply services to homes and businesses in London. This would generate an income stream to fund the capital's climate policies, according to the report. Similar schemes have been established in Bristol and Nottingham, which could provide a template for the LEC, it suggests.
"By setting up an Energy Supply Company the Mayor of London will have a far greater ability to deliver on his climate change target," she said in a statement. "He can also offer Londoners an attractive publicly owned alternative to the ‘Big 6' energy companies. Bristol and Nottingham's municipal energy companies will be supplying homes as well as businesses, and so should London."
The LEC would install solar panels across the 5,700 acre TfL estate, including station platforms and other buildings owned by the network. The firm would also buy energy from other low-carbon generators, community energy groups in London and wholesale energy markets to sell directly back to Londoners. This would cut out unnecessary profiteering and offer London consumers an alternative to the "Big Six" energy suppliers, Jones suggested.
In particular, the LEC would have a remit to boost the capital's low take-up of rooftop solar. Just 17,359 rooftops in London are equipped with solar panels, six times less than the North East. It would also aim to address TfL's rising energy bills, which are predicted to increase by £30m in the next five years as expansion projects such as Crossrail and the night tube come online.
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