Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations 2014 (“the 2014 Regulations”). The 2014 Regulations established a renewable heat incentive scheme (“the scheme”) under which owners of biomass plants, heat pumps and solar thermal plants which generate heat for domestic properties (“participants”) may receive payments at prescribed rates (“RHI payments”) when the plant generates heat for that property.

These Regulations insert a new Part 3A into the 2014 Regulations, which provides for the assignment of the right to receive RHI payments. Part 3A allows an investor, once registered by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (“the Authority”), to be nominated to receive RHI payments in respect of a plant, in place of the participant. Part 3A also makes provision for the transfer of the right to receive RHI payments from one nominated registered investor to another. These Regulations insert a new Part 7A into the 2014 Regulations, which sets out ongoing obligations with which registered investors and nominated registered investors must comply, including requirements to give annual declarations, to provide information and to notify the Authority of any relevant change of circumstances. The Regulations also insert a new Schedule 4A into the 2014 Regulations, which sets out the information to be provided in support of an application to become a registered investor, and also make a number of consequential changes, in particular in relation to the Authority’s powers of investigation and enforcement.

These Regulations amend regulation 5 of the 2014 Regulations to introduce requirements for heat pumps to have electricity meters installed; and amend regulation 14 to exclude meters fitted to comply with those requirements from metering and meter positioning requirements.

They amend regulation 36 of the 2014 Regulations to simplify the calculation of a plant’s initial tariff; they amend regulation 49 to change the structure of metering and monitoring agreement payments in respect of registrations; and they amend regulation 53 so that the Authority may not give registration of a metering and monitoring agreement where that registration would take the total number of metering and monitoring agreements over 11,255.

These Regulations insert new provisions into the 2014 Regulations to enable the Authority to withhold metering and monitoring payments if the Authority has reasonable grounds to suspect that specified metering and monitoring registration requirements are not being met. Where this power is exercised, the Authority must give notice specifying its reasons for doing so, the amount to be withheld and from when, any steps the participant must take to satisfy the Authority that payments should no longer be withheld and by when, the consequences of a failure to take those steps, and the participant’s right of review. If the Authority is subsequently satisfied that payments should no longer be withheld, it must resume payments and may repay any withheld payments.

These Regulations update Schedule 6 of the 2014 Regulations (expenditure for individual technologies) for the purposes of calculating initial tariffs; and they amend Schedule 7 (requirements for metering and monitoring agreements) so that information recorded under a metering and monitoring agreement must be updated automatically within one month of being recorded.

Version M of the Home Insulation & Energy Systems Quality Assured Contractors Scheme Code of Practice published on 1st March 2017, referred to in regulation 3, can be accessed on the Home Insulation and Energy Systems website (https://www.hiesscheme.org.uk/the-scheme/), and hard copies can be obtained from or inspected at Centurion House, Leyland Business Park, Centurion Way, Leyland, PR25 3GR.

Version 6 of the Renewable Energy Consumer Code published on 28th October 2016, also referred to in regulation 3, can be accessed on the Renewable Energy Consumer Code website (https://www.recc.org.uk/scheme/consumer-code), and hard copies can be obtained from or inspected at Renewable Energy Consumer Code, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0ET.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy at 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET.