Good work

Good Energy has announced encouraging results for the year ending 31 December 2008, but has warned of difficult times ahead.

The Wiltshire-based renewable-electricity supplier said that it had increased its home generator customers (where the company buys the output from domestic generation facilities) from 320 to 462 following the launch of its online Good Energy Shop. However, owing to a deterioration in the market, the group lost a total of 3,632 customers, ending the year with 25,232, compared with 23,770 in 2007.

Profit before tax stands at £509,022, down from £545,269 in 2007, and earnings per share were also lower at GBP0.04 from GBP0.068. However, turnover was up to £17.7m, representing a 37 per cent increase from the year earlier.

Sales of electricity were up 14 per cent, largely as a result of an increased proportion of business customers, as well as lower average temperatures in the summer of 2008. The results were also buoyed by approval to repower the Good Energy wind farm in Delabole, Cornwall. When it is built, the plant will generate around 27GWh per annum, which Good Energy claims would have been equivalent to 20 per cent of its purchases at 2008 volumes.