Regulation 2 Interpretation

In these Regulations—

• “the Act” means the Energy Prices Act 2022;

• “authorised person” means the Secretary of State, or in relation to a Scottish heat network the Scottish Ministers;

• “bill” includes a demand for a qualifying payment within section 19(5)(a)(ii) or (c)(ii) of the Act in respect of heating or hot water;

• “billing period”, in relation to a QHS supply contract, means a period in respect of which, under the terms of or applicable to the QHS supply contract, the heat supplier is obliged or entitled to send to a person an invoice or other statement of account;

• “certified heat supplier” means a qualifying heat supplier in respect of whom a QHS certificate has been issued and not revoked;

• “EBDS Regulations” means the Energy Bills Discount Scheme Regulations 2023^f1;

• “effect a pass-through” means pass on to an end user an amount calculated under regulation 6;

• “end user”, in relation to an intermediary, means an end user who falls within section 19(3)(b) or (c) of the Act;

• “heat network” means a network that, by distributing a liquid or a gas, enables the transfer of thermal energy for the purpose of supplying heating or hot water to a building or persons in that building;

• “intermediary”, except in regulations 9 to 11, means a person—

  1. (a)

     who is a heat supplier within the meaning of the Metering and Billing Regulations or who otherwise supplies and charges for the supply of heating or hot water to its end users through a heat network; or

  2. (b)

     to whom an end user makes a qualifying payment within section 19(5)(a)(ii) or (c)(ii) of the Act in respect of the supply of heating or hot water through a heat network,

  where that person has been provided with a scheme benefit in respect of the energy used to produce the heating or hot water;

• “kWh” means kilowatt hours;

• “Metering and Billing Regulations” means the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014^f2;

• “NI EBDS Regulations” means the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023^f3;

• “pass-through amount” is an amount calculated under regulation 6;

• “pass-through requirement” is the requirement set out in regulation 5;

• “QHS certificate” means a certificate issued under regulation 17(1) of the EBDS Regulations or regulation 17(1) of the NI EBDS Regulations;

• “QHS supply contract” means a single supply contract in respect of all energy supplied or otherwise made available to, or used to make available heat or hot water to, certified heat suppliers;

• “qualifying heat supplier” has the meaning given in regulation 15(1) of the EBDS Regulations or regulation 15(1) of the NI EBDS Regulations;

• “scheme benefit” has the meaning given in regulation 3 of these Regulations;

• “SRE adjustment” means an amount in pounds sterling that represents an increase or decrease in the scheme benefit provided for a relevant period;

• “supply redetermination event” or “SRE” has the meaning given in regulation 24 of the EBDS Regulations or regulation 25 of the NI EBDS Regulations.

A network is not excluded from being a heat network only by reason of its being designed to rely wholly or in part on heat pumps particular to the buildings or premises served by the network.

References to a scheme benefit or SRE adjustment being provided to an intermediary are to be construed in accordance with regulations 3(2) to (4).

An end user can also be an intermediary in respect of a scheme benefit or SRE adjustment provided to that end user and vice versa.

In these Regulations, any reference to a heat supplier within the meaning of the Metering and Billing Regulations must be read as if the words “cooling or” were omitted from the definition of that term.