“Green electricity” is one of those phrases that sounds simple until you start asking questions.

For many businesses, the conversation begins with good intent. The organisation wants to reduce emissions, support renewable energy, satisfy customer expectations, or strengthen its ESG reporting. Someone asks whether the next electricity contract can be renewable.

That is usually where the confusion starts.

Green electricity is not one product

A supplier may offer a green tariff. Another may offer REGOs. Another may suggest a corporate PPA. A third may provide a product that sounds renewable, but needs more scrutiny before the business can rely on it for reporting or external claims.

To a busy procurement or estates team, all of these can sound similar.

They are not the same thing.

That does not mean one is automatically good and another is automatically bad. It means the buyer needs to understand what is being purchased, what claim can be made, and whether the product matches the organisation’s objectives.

This is where a lot of businesses get caught out. They ask for renewable electricity, receive a green-labelled offer, and assume the sustainability question has been answered.

It may have been.

But it may only have been partly answered.

A good starting point is to separate three different questions:

• Are we buying electricity from the grid?

• Are we buying certificates that evidence renewable generation?

• Are we supporting new renewable generation in a more direct way?

Those questions matter because they lead to different products, different costs, and different claims.

REGOs are useful, but they are not magic

A REGO, or Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin, is a certificate used in the UK to demonstrate that a quantity of electricity has been generated from renewable sources. In simple terms, REGOs are part of the evidence system behind renewable electricity claims.

They are useful.

But they are not magic.

A business buying REGO-backed electricity is not usually receiving a special physical stream of green electrons into its building. The electricity still comes through the same grid. The REGO is the evidence mechanism showing that renewable generation has been matched to the supply.

For many organisations, that may be perfectly acceptable. It can support reporting, provide a clearer renewable position, and meet internal procurement requirements.

The issue is not that REGOs are wrong.

The issue is whether the business understands what they do and do not prove.

Imagine a property company with several office buildings. The board wants to tell tenants that the electricity is renewable. The procurement team asks suppliers for a green tariff. The winning offer includes REGOs, and the contract is signed.

That may be fine.

But before making tenant-facing claims, the business should understand exactly how the REGOs are sourced, retired, evidenced and reported. It should know whether the renewable certificates are bundled with the supply, whether they are purchased separately, what generation period they relate to, and whether the documentation supports the claim being made.

That is not administrative fussiness.

It is reputational protection.

A PPA is a strategy, not a label

The same applies to large corporates with carbon reporting obligations. A sustainability team may need market-based reporting evidence. A finance team may want cost certainty. A procurement team may want supplier competition. An estates team may want a contract that is simple to manage.

Those objectives can overlap, but they are not identical.

This is where PPAs enter the conversation.

A Power Purchase Agreement can be attractive because it may create a more direct relationship between the buyer and a renewable project. Depending on the structure, a PPA can support longer-term price visibility, renewable electricity claims, and the financing of renewable generation.

But PPAs are not simple products.

They require careful thought. The buyer needs to understand volume matching, price structure, contract length, credit requirements, accounting treatment, shape risk, balancing risk, sleeving arrangements, certificates, and internal governance.

A PPA can be a strong strategic tool.

It can also be the wrong answer for an organisation that simply wants a clean, manageable electricity supply contract.

Think of a university considering a long-term PPA to support its net zero strategy. The idea may be attractive. It has public credibility, a visible sustainability narrative, and the potential to support new renewable generation.

But if the university does not understand how the PPA volume aligns with actual consumption, what happens when the site uses power at different times from the renewable project, or how the certificates will be treated, the headline story may run ahead of the commercial reality.

The product must match the capability of the organisation.

The same is true for a manufacturer. A long-term renewable contract may help manage future electricity costs and support customer reporting. But if the business has uncertain production volumes, potential site changes, or limited internal appetite for long-term commitments, the PPA may create risk that the buyer has not properly priced.

What claim can the business actually make?

There is no single best renewable electricity product.

There is only the product that fits the objective.

For some organisations, a standard green tariff with clear REGO evidence may be enough.

For others, separately procured certificates may provide flexibility.

For larger businesses, a PPA or virtual PPA may be worth exploring.

For organisations with more ambitious sustainability goals, the conversation may move beyond annual matching towards questions of location, timing, additionality and whether the procurement approach genuinely supports new renewable generation.

That is where the market is heading. Renewable electricity is becoming less about asking, “Is it green?” and more about asking, “How green, evidenced in what way, and against which standard?”

Buyers should therefore ask practical questions before signing:

• What renewable product is being offered?

• Are certificates included, or priced separately?

• Are the certificates UK REGOs, EU Guarantees of Origin, or another type of certificate?

• When will certificates be retired or allocated?

• What evidence will the supplier provide?

• What claim can the business reasonably make?

• Does the product support carbon reporting requirements?

• Does the contract support the organisation’s ESG strategy?

• Is the business looking for reporting evidence, price certainty, additionality, or all three?

• Who internally will approve and defend the claim?

A green label is not enough

These questions are especially important because green claims are visible. They may appear in annual reports, tenders, customer documents, investor presentations, tenant communications or marketing materials.

A weak energy claim can become a bigger problem than a weak energy contract.

That does not mean businesses should be nervous about buying renewable electricity. Quite the opposite. They should buy it properly.

Renewable procurement can be valuable. It can help organisations reduce reported emissions, support decarbonisation, meet customer expectations and build a more coherent energy strategy.

But it needs to be understood.

A green label is not enough.

The buyer should know what is being bought, what evidence sits behind it, what claim can be made, and whether the product fits the organisation’s commercial and sustainability objectives.

In energy procurement, the right question is rarely, “Can we buy green electricity?”

The better question is, “What do we need our renewable electricity product to prove?”