Renewable energy supplier Orsted is to stop selling its services to small businesses, with immediate effect.
The company told Utility Week that it had taken the decision to focus on businesses requiring 30GWh or more. While it will continue to supply firms under this threshold if they are already customers, it will not actively pursue this market going forward.
Morten Buchgreitz, executive vice president of markets & bioenergy, said: “For quite some time, we have been looking into how we can align our Danish and UK SME customers – customers with an annual consumption below 30GWh – and our energy consulting business with Orsted’s global strategy. The conclusion is that these businesses are not compatible with the course we have set for Orsted, despite the fact that our talented employees have succeeded in transforming and digitising the business in recent years, ensuring highly satisfied customers and achieving stable growth.”
Orsted said companies in the commercial and industrial sector now represented the biggest buyers of renewable energy, signing over 13GW of corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) in 21 different countries over the past year.
In June, the Danish company announced it was expanding its offering with the addition of biogas and carbon neutral gas options, designed to suit the varied requirements and budgets of UK businesses.
Since 2017, Orsted has been supplying its customers with 100 per cent renewable energy. At the start of May, it announced plans to issue green bonds to fund offshore wind projects.