About Matched

Making Clean Energy Visible

Our mission is to make clean energy visible by providing verifiable ratings of renewable energy supply.

We believe

Annual matching isn't enough anymore

We recognise that the annualised volumetric approach was valuable when renewable energy was in its infancy and every generator needed support. However, as the grid has become increasingly renewable, the annualised approach has grown deficient. It ignores the physical challenges of balancing renewable supply with consumption and incorrectly implies that consumption at one time can be offset by supply at another.

Hourly matching cannot mean 100% matching, yet

We recognise that 100% hourly matching is neither currently feasible nor desirable in the near term. Research has shown that moving from 90–95% hourly matching to 100% matching incurs exceptionally high costs with existing technologies (Xu et al, 2019). The purpose of hourly matching is to increase transparency, enable consumers to make more informed choices, and honestly acknowledge that a 100% renewable grid remains a significant challenge.

REGOs remain the source of truth

As the regulated framework and the only universal system for tracking renewable claims, REGOs are the only framework that Matched can condone in the UK. We are happy to work with suppliers to explore other, complementary foundations for their claims.

Tariff-level matching is important too

Working with public data alone, we don't generally have visibility into how retailers divide volumes between their different business lines and/or tariffs. As a result, our methodology is limited to ratings at the portfolio level. However, we recognise the importance of consumer choice at the tariff level and invite suppliers to share data at this granularity.

We recommend

We believe that energy suppliers should report their hourly matching scores alongside their fuel-mix disclosures. Voluntary adoption of this practice would demonstrate leadership, build consumer trust in renewable energy claims, and catalyse regulatory evolution.

We encourage retailers to work with Matched to validate our methodology on internal data sources and to join the consortium of organisations that will launch the project in autumn 2025.

Our plans

1. Methodological review

We are reviewing our methodology with suppliers and sector experts. The results of this review will be made public later in the summer. Please contact us if you would like to participate.

2. Consortium launch

Matched will be formally launched in the autumn with a consortium of partner organisations. In the meantime, we encourage suppliers to voluntarily report their own hourly matching scores.

3. Consumer engagement

We're currently working with consumer organisations to make our analysis relevant to businesses and households. Later in the year, we will begin directly engaging consumers.

4. Beyond Britain

While our current focus is on British suppliers, we see similar opportunities in other markets as well.

Contact

Get in touch with us at contact@matched.energy.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn for updates and industry insights.