Government under fire for RO Banding Review delay

The REA said the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was expected to publish the review before parliamentary recess yesterday (July 17), however no document was produced.

A spokesperson for DECC said: We will not be making an announcement today. We will bring forward the proposals in due course as we are discussing and finalising the details.

The Renewables Obligation (RO) banding review covers multiple technologies including: energy-from-waste (EfW) plants with combined heat and power; anaerobic digestion; landfill gas treatment; biomass; gasification; and, pyrolysis.

ROCs

Under the Obligation, energy suppliers are required to purchase Renewables Obligations Certificates or ROCs as part of their requirement to purchase a growing proportion of electricity from renewable sources.

The current banding system sees operators receive a certain number of ROCs for every megawatt hour of electricity produced. For example operators using gasification and pyrolysis can claim one ROC for every MWh. However in a consultation on the banding system in October 2011 the government proposed that this be reduced to 0.5 ROCs per MWh (see letsrecycle.com story).

Meanwhile the government proposed changes to banding for other technologies which included reducing ROCs for AD from two ROCs per MWh at present to 1.9 per MWh in 2015/16 and then down to 1.8 ROCs in 2016/17. For EfW with combined heat and power, which currently stands at one ROC per MWh, it proposed a reduction to 0.5 ROCs for new accreditations. Elsewhere the government proposed to remove ROCs altogether for landfill gas sites (post 2001) which currently receive 0.25 ROCs per MWh.

DECC has yet to set a date for the publication of the banding review but it is understood that it could still lay out its plans during parliamentary recess.

Damaging

Commenting on the delay, the REA, which represents the renewable energy producers in the UK, said that it could be immensely damaging to the industry.

Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of the REA, said: Those within DECC know that this delay is immensely damaging to the industry and will be seeking to resolve things as rapidly as they can. Developers need certainty and soon. This delay is the most serious yet. It does not bode well for the schedule for electricity market reform, which is far more complex.

The REA called for support for the technologies such as gasification and pyrolysis at an event earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story). At the event shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex also offered support and said the review must offer clarity to the industry as there are big challenges to be faced.