# The Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) Order 2012, Article 2: Interpretation


In this Order—
“adjoining installation” has the meaning given in article 14(2);
“Administrator” means the Gas and Electricity and Markets Authority established by section 1 of the Utilities Act 2000;
“affordable warmth group” means a group of persons in receipt of the benefits in Schedule 1;
“area of low income” means an area in Great Britain which is described as an area of low income in the document entitled “Energy Company Obligation, Carbon Saving Community Obligation: Rural and Low Income Areas”, published on 12th June 2012 and the ISBN of which is 9780108511608;
“carbon qualifying action” has the meaning given in article 12(3);
“carbon saving” means the lifetime tonnes of carbon dioxide that a qualifying action will save;
“carbon saving community qualifying action” has the meaning given in article 13(5);
“cost saving” means, if a qualifying action under this Order is installed, the money that would be saved by that installation over its expected lifetime in heating a home to 21 degrees Celsius in the main living areas and 18 degrees Celsius in all other areas;
“district heating system” means a system that delivers heat through pipes or conduits to two or more domestic premises;
“domestic customer” means a person living in domestic premises in Great Britain who is supplied with electricity or gas at those premises wholly or mainly for domestic purposes;
“domestic energy user” means a person who uses energy in domestic premises in Great Britain wholly or mainly for domestic purposes and includes a person living in a mobile home;
“dual licence-holder” means a person holding a licence under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989 and a licence under section 7A of the Gas Act 1986;
“electricity licence-holder” means a person holding a licence under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989 who does not also hold a licence under section 7A of the Gas Act 1986;
“excess action” has the meaning given by article 21;
“gas licence-holder” means a person holding a licence under section 7A of the Gas Act 1986 who does not also hold a licence under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989;
“glazing measure” means the installation of secondary or replacement glazing;
“Green Deal report” means a report produced by a green deal assessor pursuant to a qualifying assessment in accordance with regulation 7 of the Green Deal Framework (Disclosure, Acknowledgment, Redress etc.) Regulations 2012;
“group company” means a licence-holder which is a member of a group of companies; and “group” refers to the group of companies of which the licence-holder is a member;
“group of companies” means a holding company and the wholly-owned subsidiaries of that holding company where “holding company” and “wholly-owned” subsidiary have the same meaning as in section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006;
“hard to treat cavity” means—
(a) a cavity wall—
(i) in a building with 3 or more storeys where each storey has cavity walls;
(ii) which a chartered surveyor has reported is not suitable to insulate with standard insulation material or techniques; or
(iii) which a chartered surveyor has reported is not suitable to insulate without substantial remedial works to the building;
(b) a cavity within a cavity wall which is less than 50mm wide;
(c) a cavity found in homes of prefabricated concrete construction or with metal frame cavity walls; or
(d) an uneven cavity formed in walls constructed of natural stone or from natural stone outer leaf and block or brick inner leaf;
“heating qualifying action” has the meaning given in article 15(3);
“householder” has the meaning given in Schedule 2;
“licence-holder” means an electricity licence-holder, a gas licence-holder or a dual licence-holder;
“lifetime tonnes of carbon dioxide” means the amount in tonnes of carbon dioxide that is expected to be saved over the lifetime of a measure installed under this Order;
“mobile home” means a home which is—
(a) a caravan within the meaning of Part I of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 (disregarding the amendment made by section 13(2) of the Caravan Sites Act 1968); and
(b) used as a dwelling for the purposes of Part I or II of the Local Government Finance Act 1992;
“notification period” means—
(a) 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2011 for phase 1;
(b) 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2012 for phase 2;
(c) 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2013 for phase 3,
and references in this Order, in relation to a phase, to the relevant notification period is to the notification period for that phase;
“overall obligation period” has the meaning given in article 6;
“phase” means one of the three phases as follows—
(a) the period commencing on 1st October 2012 and ending on 31st March 2013 (“phase 1”);
(b) the twelve months ending 31st March 2014 (“phase 2”); and
(c) the twelve months ending 31st March 2015 (“phase 3”);
“Publicly Available Specification” means the Publicly Available Specification 2030:2012;
“qualifying action” means a carbon qualifying action, a carbon saving community qualifying action or a heating qualifying action”;
“qualifying boiler” means—
(a) in the case of a boiler to be repaired, a boiler which the Administrator is satisfied—
(i) is not functioning efficiently or has broken down; and
(ii) has a seasonal energy efficiency value of not less than 86% when assessed against the Standard Assessment Procedure;
(b) in the case of a boiler to be replaced, a boiler which the Administrator is satisfied—
(i) a boiler which is not functioning efficiently; or
(ii) a boiler which has broken down,
and which cannot be economically repaired;
“qualifying supply” means the supply to domestic customers of 400 gigawatt hours of electricity or 2000 gigawatt hours of gas;
“recommended measure” means a measure—
(a) recommended in a Green Deal report which has been produced in respect of a domestic energy user’s premises; or
(b) recommended in a report by a chartered surveyor pursuant to an assessment of the domestic energy user’s premises performed for the purpose of identifying measures for improving the energy efficiency of the premises;
“Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure” means the Government’s Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure for energy ratings of dwellings (2009 Edition, as amended in April 2012, version 9.91);
“relevant year” means 2011, 2012 or 2013;
“solid wall insulation” means—
(a) internal or external insulation which lowers the U-value of the treated walls to 0.30W/m2K or less; or
(b) in the case of a mobile home, internal or external insulation applied to the ceiling, floor or walls which lowers the U-value of those parts of the mobile home to which the insulation is applied;
“a specified adjoining area” means, where an area of low income (“area A”) is—
(a) in England or Wales, an area (if any) adjoining area A which is specified as a “Lower Layer Super Output Area” by the Office of National Statistics for England and Wales, in a document entitled “Mid-2010 Population Estimates for Lower Layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales by Broad Age and Sex” (release date 28th September 2011); or
(b) in Scotland, an area (if any) adjoining area A which is specified by the Scottish Executive as a “Datazone” in a document entitled “SMID Datazone Lookup” (version 3 published on 6th March 2012);
“Standard Assessment Procedure” means the Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure for energy rating of dwellings (2009 Edition, as amended in October 2010);
“supplier” has the meaning given in article 4;
“total carbon emissions reduction obligation” means the sum total of carbon emissions reduction obligations which have been determined for a supplier in respect of phases 1, 2 and 3;
“total carbon saving community obligation” means the sum total of carbon savings community obligations which have been determined for a supplier in respect of phases 1, 2 and 3;
“total home heating cost reduction obligation” means the sum total of home heating cost reduction obligations which have been determined for a supplier in respect of phases 1, 2 and 3;
“U-value” means the measure in W/m2K of heat transmission through material.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2012/9780111525456/article/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-electricity-and-gas-energy-company-obligation-order-2012/article-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.