On 16 February 2011, the CRC Energy Efficiency (Amendment) Order 2011 (the "Amendment Order") was published and laid before Parliament. The Amendment Order makes important changes to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (the "Scheme") and comes into force on 1 April 2011.
The Scheme is a mandatory, national climate change and energy saving scheme designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Organisations which meet the qualification criteria are required to report their CRC emissions and surrender a number of CRC allowances for each compliance year.
As set out in the November 2010 consultation on the proposed amendments, the key changes made by the Amendment Order to the Scheme include:
- Extending the introductory phase of the scheme to run until 31 March 2014 (rather than the end of March 2013);
- Postponing the qualification year for Phase 2 and subsequent phases for two years. This means that the qualification year for Phase 2 is 2012/13 not 2010/11. The registration period for Phase 2 will therefore also be postponed for two years, so it will now take place between April – September 2013, rather than 2011. This will give the government more time to review the operation of the Scheme before a new phase commences, as well reduce the administrative burden on stakeholders during this time; and
- Removing the requirement to make "information disclosures". Organisations that have at least one Settled Half Hourly Meter, but have qualifying electricity of less than the qualification threshold for the qualification year will, going forward, not have to make an information disclosure to the administrator by providing data on energy usage.
Given the ongoing government consultations and discussion papers which are looking at further ways of simplifying the Scheme, more amendments are expected.
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