This month the Government announced a number of proposed amendments to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order SI 2010/768, in a move which is likely to be welcomed by many participants.
The amendments include details on the following.
Fixed price sale allowances
From Phase 2 (1 April 2013) there will be two fixed prices for sales of allowances and there will no longer be any cap or auction. The sale at the beginning of the year (where participants forecast their energy usage) will have lower priced allowances than those sold in the sale at the end of the year.
Participants will no longer need to predict their usage or develop auctioning strategies.
Organisation rules
The organisational rules have been simplified so that CRC compliance will more closely follow natural business units. For example, participants will be able to disaggregate business units which are not large enough to qualify in their own right, as well as those which result in the parent falling below the CRC qualification threshold.
The rules relating to trusts will also be amended so the scheme will allocate responsibility to those with a genuine commercial interest in the property and use.
Landlord/tenant
There are no changes planned to the landlord/tenant rule, but the Government is considering whether there should be an exception where a tenant builds a structure on land owned by a landlord, the landlord supplies the energy but the tenant is the sole occupant and is responsible for its maintenance.
Qualification and administration
By 2012, once the first reporting and auditing cycle has been completed, the Government will review the procedure with the aim of reducing the administration burden on participants.
The qualification criteria will be simplified so that only electricity through settled half hourly meters will be taken into account. In addition, the criteria for the performance league tables will be taken out of legislation and placed into guidance.
Out of the 29 fuels originally covered by the scheme, only electricity, gas, diesel and kerosene will now be included.
Next stage
Draft legislative proposals are expected to be available for consultation in early 2012. In the meantime, the Government is inviting comments on the proposed amendments, to be made by 2 September 2011.
