The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released a formal update on the CRC Energy Efficiency scheme. A summary of the key points and changes follow below. (Please be aware that these are constantly changing.)

The Carbon Reduction Commitment has now been renamed the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

• If your business consumed more than 6,000MWh of Half Hourly electricity during 2008 you qualify as a ‘Full Participant’ in the scheme. You are required to disclose a list of all your Half Hourly electricity Meters and disclose itemised Half Hourly and AMR Metered electricity usage.
• If your business also consumed more than 73,000kWh of gas during 2008 you qualify as a ‘Full Participant’.

Please note that some alternative fuels also need to be considered for CRC qualification.

If your business consumed less than 6,000MWh of Half Hourly electricity during 2008 you qualify NOT as a Full Participant but as a business that has to make an ‘Information Disclosure’. Although a non participant in the scheme, you are required to disclose a list of all your Half Hourly Meters and disclose itemised Half Hourly electricity usage.

Half Hourly electricity meters (HHM’s) measure and report electricity consumption by the half hour or less. Electricity suppliers use this information to calculate your bill. There are five types of HHM’s covered by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. These are:

• Mandatory HHM’s (which are HHM’s required to be installed in certain situations)

• Voluntary HHM’s - Half Hourly Light Meters - Dynamic pseudo HH unmetered supply

• Automatic Meter Reading (AMR’s also know as ‘Smart Meters’)

Your electricity supplier will be able to give you electricity consumption data for most of these meters but will not necessarily know if you have any AMR’s, and they are not included in the list at the end of the environment agency letter sent out in November 2009. It is your responsibility to identify them, collect their consumption data and include this within your 2008 qualification consumption. This data can be managed by LSI.

Full guidance for registration is now available on the Environmental Agency’s CRC section on their website

Please contact us on crc@lsiutilitybroker.co.uk if you would like to receive further information regarding any of these issues or advice on the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Note: Please keep an eye out for CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme updates.