Hmmm ... soooo .. if Powershop openly admits they purchase energy from the NEM wholesale market as does everyone else and accordingly no way of knowing what proportion (if any ..) is renewable or not then how does GetUp! get from there to here ???
"... It's time for a change
A switch for good
By switching through the Better Power campaign you'll be:
* Moving to an energy company ranked greenest in Australia by Greenpeace and cheapest in NSW and Vic by St Vincent de Paul
* Enjoying cheap rates and better service than your current provider
* Showing your support for renewable energy, with a retailer backed by a 100% renewable power generator
* Offsetting your power so your household electricity is carbon-neutral (for free!)
* Helping fund GetUp campaigns that support renewable energy rather than dirty and polluting coal-fired power and coal seam gas
Best of all, you'll also be holding to account Australia's three largest energy companies - AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin. By switching, you'll tell them that you want them to clean up their act, stop investing in dirty power from coal and coal seam gas, and start supporting renewable energy ... " https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/renewable-energy/better-power-now/switch-to-better-power-today
GetUp! claims to have helped 20,000 members switch from Australia’s “dirtiest” electricity retailers to green energy by referring them to a rival company, despite the rival admitting it has no idea where its power comes from.
The activist group was paid more than $2 million in exchange for referring members to online retailer Powershop, promoting it as “backed by a 100 per cent renewable energy company”.
GetUp! has used the $2m — about $100 for each member referred — to campaign against Powershop competitors EnergyAustralia, AGL and Origin, which GetUp! calls “the dirty three”.
Powershop, wholly owned by New Zealand firm Meridian Energy, buys electricity from the national power grid in the same way as its “dirty” competitors. The bulk of Powershop’s electricity, often all of it, is sourced from coal-fired power stations because renewable energy from wind or hydro power can only service just over 15 per cent of the market at full capacity, and downtime is common.
Urging members to dump their energy company, GetUp! guarantees Powershop is “ranked the greenest energy retailer” and “Australia’s only carbon-neutral provider”. Critics of GetUp!, including Green Left Weekly, claim the activist group has perpetrated a myth, confusing consumers wooed to Powershop because most of the renewable energy from an alleged “100 per cent renewable power generator” is on-sold to other retailers as well.
The $2m GetUp! earned from Powershop is on top of donations since its inception in 2005.
A spokesman for GetUp! national director Paul Oosting said the group was transparent about the source of Powershop’s electricity, making it clear the energy came from the national grid, which included a “mix of renewable and non-renewable energy”.
Mr Oosting’s spokesman, from public relations firm Essential Media, said the implication no carbon was offset by GetUp!’s campaign to help Powershop and attack other retailers was “not true”. He said Powershop offsets emissions from its operations, and its customers’ energy usage, by using UN-accredited certified emission reduction certificates.
The Australian Energy Council’s general manager of policy, Kieran Donoghue, told The Courier-Mail last week that activist groups such as GetUp! “compromised their integrity” by entering into a commercial arrangement with Powershop, and then campaigning as a supposed independent commentator by “bad-mouthing” competitors.
Meridian, the owner of Powershop, owns wind farms in Australia — the renewable component of electricity it generates. Green sceptics point out Meridian sells most of its renewable energy certificates to other retailers in the power industry.
In a blog for consumers, Powershop says it has been frequently asked since its launch “where does my power dome from?” Powershop continues: “The short but somewhat unhelpful answer is no one knows!”
According to Powershop, engineers and economists would “love” to be able to track the path of electrons around the electricity system, but it is not possible.
“In simple terms, all generators sell their energy to the Australian electricity market, the wholesale market. What this means is all retailers are selling customers energy that is purchased from the wholesale market, whether or not they also generate power.”
Mr Oosting’s spokesman did not respond to a question about whether GetUp! had concerns about Powershop‘s 52 per cent ownership by the New Zealand government. The GetUp! spokesman launched an attack on NewsCorp, publisher of The Australian, saying its “competing consumer campaign” One Big Switch was based solely on cost. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...s/news-story/5a76065bddfae60107b7c0a113a73392
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