ROC Banding Consultations

The end of 2011 brought three consultations on proposed re-banding of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) by central and devolved UK administrations.

On completion of the consultations the ROC awards for each renewable technology would be reset and finally incorporated in law. This is for the period 2013 to 2017.

Hydropower was set to fare worst with a proposed halving of the ROC award per MWh generated from 1 to 0.5 ROC value. Onshore wind was to be set at 90% of a ROC. This naturally caused concern to the hydro industry especially developers, consultants and suppliers of projects having a capacity of over 5MW.

Prior to the consultation response dates, BHA, SSE, Alcan and RWE npower made independent representations to the issuing authorities. These are Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) (Central UK Government), Department of Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Scottish Government and Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI), Northern Ireland Assembly.

The main reason given for the reduction was a report commissioned by DECC from Arup & Partners earlier in 2011. Data in this report was questioned by all responders and evidence gathered to highlight accuracies and incorrect impressions. BHA attended a very detailed meeting a week before the responses were required and we used evidence which is included in a document compiled by Carl Crompton of Gilkes in concert with other hydro companies. This document was included with the BHA response to the individual administrations:

• DECC

• Scottish Government

• DETI

Further evidence has been provided subsequently as requested by DECC. This will form the basis of further discussions during the consultation review period. We also hope that a lot of the work put into the ROC review will also assist with the Feed-in Tariff review expected in early February.