The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have published a document outlining their response to the transition from the current Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme to Contract for Differences (CfDs) and resulting grace periods. In which are details about a RO grace period relating to developments delayed by radar.
About the grace period due to radar delays
The particular RO accreditation grace period applies to all RO technologies (both new and additional capacity) and grants a “12 month grace period to address radar…delays, where the project was scheduled to commission on or prior to 31 March 2017.” When the RO will officially be closing to new developments.
In order to be granted this grace period the developer will need to provide three pieces of evidence which are:
- A copy of a radar works agreement specifying a radar works completion date which is no later than 31 March 2017.
- A letter from a party to the radar works agreement who is unrelated to the generator/ developer confirming that the radar works were completed after the agreed date and that the failure to complete the radar works on time was not due to any breach of the radar works agreement by the generator / developer.
- A written declaration by the generator that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, the station would have been commissioned on or before 31st March 2017 if the radar works had been completed on or before the radar works completion date.
(Source: Crown copyright, Government Response to the consultations on the Renewables Obligation Transition and on Grace Periods)
Background
The transition from the RO accreditation to CfDs is something that has been talked about for the last couple of years.
Back on the 7th November 2013 DECC published a document titled “RO Grace Periods Consultation” which set out the Government’s proposed set up for grace periods, and a catalogue of consultation questions that interested parties were invited to answer, along with providing comments on the document as a whole. There were 49 responses received.
