Eon and RWE Renewables have signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) that will see the latter’s UK wind farms support Eon’s drive to provide UK customers with 100% renewable electricity.
The 2.5-year PPA spans 20 UK wind farm assets, totalling 892MW of on- and offshore wind power, owned by RWE Renewables, including a portion of the London Array offshore project.
The wind farms will generate output of three terawatt hours a year.
Earlier this year, Eon announced it was providing all of its residential customers across Britain with an electricity supply backed by 100% renewable sources, on all tariffs, as standard, and at no extra cost.
The wind farms were originally built by Eon as part of the company’s £3.3bn investment in UK renewables over the last decade.
Ownership transferred to RWE at the start of October as part of the asset swap deal in which Eon took over RWE’s stake in Innogy in return for Eon’s major renewable energy activities.
Eon UK chief executive Michael Lewis said: “A significant element of our commitment to providing all our residential customers with renewable electricity – a change at a scale never seen before in Britain – was the fact we have invested more than £3.3bn in renewable energy in the UK in recent years.
“We have now secured the power coming from all those wind farms, as well as similar arrangements we have with more than a dozen independent generators around the country, which means our customers can continue to enjoy an electricity supply backed by UK renewables.
“But the future of energy doesn’t stop here – to combat the climate emergency we are now focusing on helping our customers to better manage their energy through smart, personalised and sustainable technologies such as solar and battery technology, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.”
RWE Renewables, part of RWE, has an installed capacity of more than 9GW plus 2.6GW under construction to be completed in the “near future” and the company said it is “actively seeking” corporate PPAs for this capacity.
RWE Renewables chief commercial officer Tom Glover said: “Great Britain, where we already operate over 2000MW of renewable energy, is a very attractive market for RWE due to its well-functioning framework.
“PPAs as are an extremely important instrument that help to achieve renewable build-out targets and offer stability for all parties involved.”