Ripple energy "strike off"

[kla456]

This posted yesterday regarding DW

I’m one of the DW Board members and can confirm that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to ensure the solar farm is completed in line with schedule. As at the time of writing the demise of Ripple hasn’t really added to any project delays - work has continued on site without any disruption and we shouldn’t be too far away from getting that done.

Unfortunately the Board are all in full time work as well as having one hand tied behind their backs in terms of having access to the admin tools that Ripple had available so please bear with us in the short term.[/i]

[jonc_uk]

This was emailed yesterday. I thought it told me nothing, however, there is one thing I have noticed:

Thomas is a member of Ripple Coop 4, formerly the Whitelaw Brae project.

Formerly??



Dear Ripple Coop 4 Member,

We are writing to introduce ourselves as your new Board of Directors for Ripple Coop 4 Limited.

We apologise that it has taken some time to contact you since the news that Ripple Energy Limited ceased trading; there have been a number of logistical challenges to obtaining member contact information. We are now in a position to communicate with our members and will look to keep you updated on a regular basis.

We recommend you add this email address to your ‘safe senders’ list to ensure that you receive our updates.

Board of Directors

The Directors of the Coop are volunteers and do not receive any payment for their services. The Board needs to have a minimum of three Directors in order to operate, and following the resignation of two Directors in recent weeks, Tom, Klaus, and Sam have recently been co-opted to join Ursula on the Board.

Sam Bayley, Chair
Sam is a senior leader in higher education with extensive experience in operations and planning roles. He has served on numerous boards as a governor or trustee and acts as a volunteer management consultant to small- and medium-sized charities.

Sam is a member of the Derril Water Coop as well as Coop 4.


Klaus Dudas, Secretary
Klaus is a senior software architect working for a mutual in the telecoms industry. He has a strong interest in renewable energy and enjoys applying his technical expertise to support sustainable initiatives. He has also been a company secretary and a general election agent.

Klaus is a member of all four Ripple Coops.


Thomas Prior
Thomas is a senior manager in IT with a background in large scale virtual desktop planning, deployment and support operations for large enterprises. He volunteered as a Scout Leader in multiple groups over 8 years and assisted in their respective governance structures.

Thomas is a member of Ripple Coop 4, formerly the Whitelaw Brae project.


Ursula Stevenson
Ursula has 25 years experience in environmental consultancy. Her experience includes environmental assessment and management, including construction of infrastructure projects. She is an active committee member for a professional institute and trustee of two local charities.

Ursula was one of the original Coop 4 Directors.

​
Latest Update

Ripple Energy Ltd ceased trading on 17th March 2025 and is currently in administration, being overseen by Begbies Traynor LLP. Begbies Traynor have set up a dedicated help page, which can be found at https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/ri ... gy-limited.

The Board believes that funds invested by members into the Ripple Coop 4 should have been held in a ring-fenced client account. We have not yet been able to confirm whether this is the case. Begbies Traynor advise that they are still reviewing the situation but have so far offered minimal engagement to the Coop 4 Board.

We note there has been speculation that Coop 4 have entered into partnerships with third parties. No such agreements have been made by the Coop 4 Board.

At this point in time, the Board does not have access to any operating funds and as such are trying to keep all expenditure to an absolute minimum.

​
Notice of a General Meeting

We have received a request from members for a General Meeting. In accordance with the Society’s rules, this will be held on Saturday 3 May 2025, at 15:00.

The meeting will be held via an online platform. We are currently considering the logistical arrangements and will be in touch with further details in due course.

​
Data Privacy

We have asked the Administrator for assurances that personal data of members had not been sold to 1st Energy as part of the asset sale referenced on their website, as this would not be allowed under the terms of our Management Services Agreement nor your Customer Agreement. We have not yet received such assurances and we have been unable to confirm whether any data breach has occurred.

As data controllers, we are required to apply the precautionary principle to looking after your data under GDPR. As such, we notified the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/) of a potential breach on 17 April and informed the Administrator that we have taken this action. The Administrator has confirmed that they will investigate promptly. We have also asked 1st Energy to destroy any customer data that may have been transferred to them unlawfully.

We have asked the Administrator to transfer to the Coop any data on Coop 4 members they are currently storing under the Management Services Agreement.

We will advise members of any further developments when we know more.


Next Steps

The Board will meet regularly and we will continue to update Coop 4 members via email. We will continue correspondence with the Administrators and to explore the options open to us to protect our members’ interests.

We are collating information, such as historic Coop 4 Board minutes, and our ambition is to share these with members as transparently as possible. We will let you know when this information is available.


Contacting the Board

The Board is working hard to get answers to the questions we know that members have, and to find a resolution to the current position. As we are volunteers, with our own full-time jobs, we appreciate your patience and would kindly ask that you only contact us if absolutely necessary on ********.

We will be in touch soon with a further update.

With best wishes,

Ursula, Tom, Klaus & Sam

Board of Directors - Ripple Coop 4 Limited

[kla456]

I am not a member of WB, but I think this part might be more significant:
should have been held in a ring-fenced client account. We have not yet been able to confirm whether this is the case
You can't relax until the money is safe.

[jonc_uk]

Email from 1st Energy. For WB, here is the important part:

Payments towards Whitelaw Brae:
Please note that now Ripple Energy Ltd have stopped trading and all matters with regards to investors in Whitelaw Brae are being dealt with by the administrators.

Please contact Begbie Traynor on ripple@btguk.com

Full email:

Hi Ripple Member

A 1st Energy update on all things Ripple
Dear Ripple Community

1st Energy – April Update

Hello from the team at 1st Energy.

It has been an extremely busy month for the team at 1st Energy, as we have been getting
involved in and navigating through the Ripple Energy world, which has been both
challenging and complex.

We appreciate you have been looking for further updates from us since our initial
announcement, however we have been obtaining as much background information and
understanding as we can and have only received access to this function this week.

Over the last few weeks, we have spoken to some of the stakeholders who have contacted us
directly to gain further knowledge and understanding of the multi-faceted set-up of the Ripple Model, alongside thinking ahead of what could be next for Ripple as a brand.

We have also enjoyed conversations with many of you, whether it be a simple conversation about payments or your investments status, alongside conversations that were deeper and
more thought provoking about public ownership for green energy assets across the UK.

From an overarching perspective, 1st Energy believes in the model that Ripple Energy developed, which is why we have purchased the assets of the business, including the brand name “Ripple” to ensure this model and its aims, can continue to provide benefits to you the members.

As way of update, please find the following summary, of what we have been working on,
over the past weeks:

Co-operative Board Discussions:
We have had and will continue to have initial discussions with each Co-op board / chair to
provide options for a future working relationship from a number of angles;

Provision of the Software platform / CRM;
a.) This manages your dashboard for previous investments and agreements.
b.) Provides energy generation data / billing information, for the energy companies to enable you to receive the discounted bill to be produced each month.
c.) Provides the Community Forum for information sharing and discussion groups. Following
these initial discussions and communications, we are currently awaiting feedback from the
co-op boards on whether they wish to keep the above services accessible, and as a business we need to understand their requirements, as there are monthly costs to keep the systems live and available for you as the membership.

We have developers inhouse and are happy to listen to their feedback and where possible
to make changes or improvements, to ensure the resources are automated and work
well for all parties.

Power Purchase Agreement:
We have provided a PPA Proposal to the Co-op boards which would see us provide a fixed rate export guarantee rate for up to 15 years. The rate is in line with rates achieved by the previous PPA agreements in terms of £/MWH.

Our proposal we have outlined is, that we believe that energy companies should not be simply
buying the export power and selling it to you the customers, with their normal profit margin. Given the Ripple model is about empowering customers and giving ownership to the public, we propose to give a profit share back to each co-op from profits made selling the energy to you the
customers.

This further income could be paid to the co-op to distribute / re-invest or given as a further discount from each customers bill.

We appreciate this might may only be of interest to those of you who are considering switching
energy supplier – however we wanted to offer this option given the overall aims of Ripple is to empower customers.

Energy Suppliers Discussions:
We have had positive meetings with the Energy Suppliers who are currently involved in the
Ripple model and we will continue to progress these discussions, both on aspects of the previous working arrangements and looking ahead to the future, for opportunities to work together to further the Ripple model and you the members.

We will keep you updated of any new opportunities that arise from these discussions.

We have also begun early conversations with our industry connections and funding partners to provide the next community ownership opportunities be that in Wind or Solar Energy assets.
Like before this will take time, given the complexity of the contract arrangements required,
however we firmly believe that there are further projects to work on together in future.
To make this a possibility we would be keen to hear from you on whether you are interested in further investment opportunities.

Further to working on community ownership assets we would also be keen to engage with you
to understand your own Green Energy Objectives for your home or business.
Making your home sustainable is important for us all to limit our impact on the planet and any feedback you can provide us will enable us to provide relevant content, information and service products to meet your needs.

Payments:
We have received a large volume of emails about both the deductions you receive from your energy bills and payments you have made towards energy assets.
See below update on these;

Deductions from Energy Supplier Bills for Operational Sites;
When Ripple Energy Ltd seized trading in March the data provided to your energy suppliers from the Ripple Software stopped flowing therefore this may have affected your discounts being applied to your energy bill by your supplier.

Once we have agreed a contract with each Co-op board we will be able to provide the data / billing as required to the energy companies but are currently not permitted to do so.

Graig Fatha and Kirkhill Wind Farm are being managed by your Co-op boards so any questions please contact;
Graig Fatha – dominic.szanto@gmail.com
Kirkhill – kirkhillchair@gmail.com

Derril Water:
Please refer to the most recent newsletter from the Derril Water Co-op Board confirming construction is ongoing and they continue to work towards a go live date in July.

Any questions please contact derril.water.chair@gmail.com

Payments towards Whitelaw Brae:
Please note that now Ripple Energy Ltd have stopped trading and all matters with regards to investors in Whitelaw Brae are being dealt with by the administrators.

Please contact Begbie Traynor on ripple@btguk.com

I can confirm that 1st Energy has no access to finances or banking of Ripple Energy Ltd as this is under the control of the administrator who will be in contact in due course.
For now we look forward to receiving your views and feedback and engaging further with you in the next few months.

Ripple Energy were developing many key contacts across government and industry to ensure a place for the model with connections to other models and resources.

We are aware that some members were part of these discussions and we would be open to discussions with you on any outstanding matters that you feel had traction and are important to you and the community.

Please complete our quick survey form below to give us insight into your energy needs, which will assist us in planning next steps;

https://forms.office.com/e/yft17Wn3p7?origin=lprLink

Or alternatively, email support@rippleenergy.com


Kind Regards

1st Energy Management Team

[Fintray]

Thanks for posting that as my email is down meantime.

[Tinbum]

As I understand it that e mail is a GPDR breach as they shouldn't have our details and they have been told that and asked to delete that data. Kirk Hill COOP have certainly asked them to delete it and have already reported a breach to the information commissioner.

[SporranMcDonald]

GF Coop : An urgent response to the 1st Energy email sent to all (former) Ripple customers. My BOLD & high-lighting . . . .

Dear Fellow Members of Graig Fatha Co-op,

We're aware that you've probably received an email from 1st Energy / Ripple today. We had no prior warning that 1st Energy were planning to send this and had neither seen nor agreed its contents.

Firstly, please note that in the case of Graig Fatha the contact details are incorrect. The correct contact for Graig Fatha Co-op (which goes directly to all Board members) is graigfathacoop@gmail.com

Please do not use the email address provided by 1st Energy for any purpose.

We'd be grateful if you'd simply delete the email as it contains personal data and breaches GDPR.

Secondly, we'd like to reaffirm that the only accurate source of information about the Co-op comes from our newsletters.

1st Energy’s email is correct that the Graig Fatha wind farm is being managed by the Co-op Board, and we will continue to do so entirely for the benefit of our members.

Interesting times . . .

[Adokforme]

GF Coop : An urgent response to the 1st Energy email sent to all (former) Ripple customers. My BOLD & high-lighting . . . .

Dear Fellow Members of Graig Fatha Co-op,

We're aware that you've probably received an email from 1st Energy / Ripple today. We had no prior warning that 1st Energy were planning to send this and had neither seen nor agreed its contents.

Firstly, please note that in the case of Graig Fatha the contact details are incorrect. The correct contact for Graig Fatha Co-op (which goes directly to all Board members) is graigfathacoop@gmail.com

Please do not use the email address provided by 1st Energy for any purpose.

We'd be grateful if you'd simply delete the email as it contains personal data and breaches GDPR.

Secondly, we'd like to reaffirm that the only accurate source of information about the Co-op comes from our newsletters.

1st Energy’s email is correct that the Graig Fatha wind farm is being managed by the Co-op Board, and we will continue to do so entirely for the benefit of our members.

Interesting times . . .

Yes, indeed. I received the above which followed the one from 1st Energy seeking customers opinions on their thoughts for community energy generation. I had partially completed it then had second thoughts and deleted the contents.
Following receipt of the email above I searched my inbox for the one from 1st Energy to discover it no longer existed.
Presumably on notice from the Coops they had withdrawn it!
The plot thickens.

[nowty]

I suspect if you fill in the form sent by 1st Energy, your data will probably become legitimately theirs and your likely to be spammed !


I note there were a couple of positive points from the real Graig Fatha Coop email,

Management Services Tender
We've been delighted with the response to our invitations to tender and have received the first. Several more are in final stages before submission, following some detailed conversations. All are from reputable companies with strong track records in the sector and experience working with co-operatives and community benefit societies. We expect to be able to tell you more at the meeting on 22 May.

IT Collaboration
The IT Group is now collaborating with volunteers with IT experience from Kirk Hill Co-op. They're making great progress in developing software which could support both co-ops. Watch this space.