Hotels and pubs go green to save with innovative energy agreement

Pubs and accommodation hotels in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory are set to join the renewable energy revolution through a world-first agreement that aggregates the energy needs of hotels and pubs to deliver potential savings and underwrite large-scale investments in renewable energy.

The agreement was announced today by ENGIE, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) and Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA), along with the energy deal’s anchor partner, Lion.

ENGIE will enter into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a solar farm and - through its retail arm Simply Energy - offer to supply eligible AHA hospitality and accommodation businesses in NSW and the ACT with electricity for 10 years using an industry-scale aggregation model. The offer is for electricity, renewable certificates and balancing of the renewable output and the aggregated customer loads.

“It’s typically only the largest industrial energy users who are able to enter into these arrangements with enough load to underwrite new investments in renewable energy at low prices,” said ENGIE Australia & New Zealand Chief Executive Officer, Augustin Honorat.

“This arrangement is designed to combine the retail load of hundreds of hotels and pubs, offering potential savings compared to their existing deals, greater price certainty for 10 years and a link to renewable energy supply to support the energy transition,” said Mr Honorat.

AHA NSW and National President Scott Leach said the agreement was a world-first industry-scale aggregated PPA.

“This is a ground-breaking deal which will help break the back of high electricity prices paid by our members while simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint,” Mr Leach said.

Lion Managing Director James Brindley said the deal represented great collaboration across industry.

“In addition to striking a better deal for many hotels in NSW and the ACT, this aggregated PPA will allow Lion to reduce its carbon emissions in the state of NSW by 40 per cent.”

Clean Energy Strategies (CES) ran a tender process where 54 generators and 12 retailers responded, and Simply Energy was selected by AHA as the preferred solution.

Pictured: ENGIE Australia & New Zealand CEO Augustin Honorat; Lion Managing Director James Brindley and ENGIE Australia & New Zealand General Manager of Energy Solutions, Luke Peacocke

ENGIE media contact: Andrew Turner Tel.: 0412 060 719 Email: [email protected]