Renewable electricity supplier Good Energy has called on the UK Government to simplify the proposed Feed-in Tariff (FiT) arrangements for micro-generators and reward generators for their total generation.
The FiT, due to come into operation in April 2010, was announced as a new financial mechanism in the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy earlier this year. It is designed to increase renewable electricity generation in the UK by offering financial incentives to small and medium sized renewable energy projects generating up to 5MW of electricity.
Under the current proposals, the FiT will be made up of two parts: A generation payment and an export payment. Generators will be paid a fixed sum per unit of electricity they generate, varying across different technologies, for 20 years (25 for solar PV projects) – the generation payment. They’ll also be paid for each unit of electricity they export to the grid – the export payment.
Currently a blanket price of 5p per unit is proposed for this export payment, almost 20% above the current market rate.
Good Energy is the leading supporter of small to medium-sized generators in the UK, and has been paying its own version of a Feed-in Tariff for five years through its award-winning HomeGen scheme.
The purpose of the Feed-in Tariff is to encourage more people to make a difference to climate change by generating their own energy. Good Energy’s own experience and analysis suggests that for most generators the financial benefits from the generation payment and from avoiding importing electricity are much more important than the export element.
Under the current proposals the administration of the export element of the tariff will be complex and the costs will be high.
Juliet Davenport, founder and CEO of Good Energy, said: “We wholeheartedly support the introduction of a UK-wide Feed-in Tariff and have long called for the Government to follow our lead in introducing such an incentive scheme. As they currently stand, however, the Government proposals may be unworkable.
“Bringing in a blanket price for exported electricity will undermine the current market whereby suppliers compete to offer generators the best price for their power, and generators may lose out as money that should be going to them becomes tied up in administrative costs and supplier compensation.
“We urge that the Feed-in Tariff proposals be modified to focus on supporting generation payments, and let the market determine the export price.”
guy seaborn, cambridge around 7 months, 2 weeks ago