Renewables Obligation Order (Northern Ireland) 2005

Revocation of NIROCs

5.—(1) The Authority –

(a) shall, where in respect of any electricity generated by a generating station in a particular month it is satisfied that the declaration provided to it by the operator of that generating station pursuant to Article 4(10)(c) or by a licensed supplier pursuant to Article 4(11) is false or that a NIROC was issued on the basis of any fraudulent behaviour, statement or undertaking on the part of the operator of that generating station or any connected person, revoke all NIROCs issued in respect of that generating station in that month;

(b) shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraph (2), revoke any NIROC where it is otherwise satisfied that the NIROC is inaccurate;

(c) may, in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraph (2), revoke any NIROC where –

(i) the Authority is no longer satisfied that the NIROC should have been issued;

(ii) the Authority has reasonable doubts as to the accuracy or reliability of the information upon which the Authority relied prior to the issue of the NIROC; or

(iii) the Authority has been unable, due to a failure or refusal by any person (whether inside or outside Northern Ireland) to provide the Authority with any information reasonably requested by it, to check the accuracy of either the NIROC or any information which the Authority relied upon prior to the issue of the NIROC; and

(d) shall, in reaching a decision as to the inaccuracy of a NIROC for the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) and in exercising its powers to revoke a NIROC pursuant to paragraph (1)(c), disregard any changes to the amounts for “gross output” and “input electricity” (as those two expressions are defined in Article 12(5)) which were used by it (as provided in Article 4(13)(a)) to determine the amount of electricity to be regarded as having been generated from eligible renewable sources by a particular generating station in a particular month.

(2) Where the Authority revokes NIROCs in accordance with paragraph (1)(b) or (c), it shall revoke the appropriate number of NIROCs from those issued in respect of the generating station in respect of a particular month in descending numerical order of NIROC sequence number, deleting those NIROCs previously allocated the highest NIROC sequence numbers and remaining on the Register from the Register in advance of those with lower NIROC sequence numbers and in determining the number of NIROCs which it is appropriate to revoke it shall proceed on the basis that one NIROC represents one megawatt hour of electricity (with any exact half megawatt hour being rounded upwards).

(3) Where the Authority has revoked a NIROC –

(a) it shall as soon as practicable give notice of such revocation in writing to the registered holder of the NIROC at the time of revocation; and

(b) other than when a NIROC has been revoked in accordance with paragraph (1)(a), the Authority may, in circumstances where it considers it appropriate to do so, issue a replacement NIROC in accordance with the procedures laid down in paragraph (4) provided that it is satisfied that each of the relevant criteria in Article 4(10) is met and such NIROC shall be treated as if issued under Article 4.

(4) Where pursuant to paragraph (3)(b) the Authority issues a replacement NIROC it shall –

(a) allocate to the replacement NIROC the lowest NIROC sequence number of any NIROC previously issued in respect of the same generating station and same month that has been revoked which has not already been allocated to a replacement NIROC which has not itself been revoked;

(b) issue each replacement NIROC to the person to whom the NIROC issued in respect of that generating station and that month and bearing the same NIROC sequence number was previously issued; and

(c) proceed on the basis that one NIROC represents one megawatt hour of electricity (with any exact half megawatt hour being rounded upwards).