The Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) Order 2015

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) Order 2015 and comes into force on 1st April 2015.

Amendment to the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012

2.—(1) This Order amends the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012(1)(“the 2012 Order”).

(2) A reference in this Order to a numbered article or Schedule is to the article or Schedule so numbered in the 2012 Order.

Article 2

3.  In article 2 (interpretation)—

(a) in paragraph (1), after “community energy installation”, insert—

““community organisation” has the meaning given in article 11;”; and

(b) for paragraph (3), substitute—

“(3) In this Order—

“last resort supply direction” has the meaning given to it in the standard conditions of electricity supply licences; and

“stand-alone solar photovoltaic” has the meaning given to it in Annex 3 to Schedule A to Standard Licence Condition 33 of the standard conditions of electricity supply licences.”.

Article 9

4.  Article 9 (preliminary accreditation) is amended as follows—

(a) after paragraph (iv), in paragraph (3)(a), insert—

“(v) where the installation will be a solar photovoltaic installation with a total installed capacity of 250kW or more, whether or not the installation will be stand-alone solar photovoltaic;

(vi) whether or not the installation will be owned by a community organisation;”;

(b) in paragraph (4)(c)(ii), omit “and”;

(c) at the end of sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (4), omit the full stop and insert “; and”;

(d) after sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (4) insert—

“(e) if the application for preliminary accreditation specifies that the installation will be owned by a community organisation, the installation will be so owned.”;

(e) at the beginning of paragraph (8), insert “Subject to paragraph (8A),”; and

(f) after paragraph (8), insert—

“(8A) Where the installation will be owned by a community organisation, preliminary accreditation shall be valid—

(a) for solar photovoltaic installations, for 12 months;

(b) for wind and anaerobic digestion installations, for 18 months; and

(c) for hydro generating stations, for 30 months,

beginning with the date on which the application for preliminary accreditation was received by the Authority.”.

Article 10

5.  In paragraph (4) of article 10 (effect of preliminary accreditation)—

(a) at the end of sub-paragraph (d), omit “or”; and

(b) after sub-paragraph (e) insert—

“(f) the application for preliminary accreditation specified that the installation—

(i) would not be stand-alone solar photovoltaic and it is stand-alone solar photovoltaic; or

(ii) would be stand-alone solar photovoltaic and it is not stand-alone solar photovoltaic;

(g) the application for preliminary accreditation specified that the installation would be owned by a community organisation and the Authority is not satisfied that it is owned by a community organisation.”.

Article 11

6.  In paragraph (6) of article 11 (pre-registration of community energy installations)—

(a) before the definition of “community benefit or co-operative society”, insert—

““charity” means a charity—

(a)

registered in the register of charities kept by the Charity Commission in accordance with section 29 of the Charities Act 2011(2); or

(b)

as defined by section 106 (interpretation) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005(3);”;

(b) for the definition of “community benefit or cooperative society”, substitute—

““community benefit or co-operative society” means a society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014(4) as a community benefit society or as a co-operative society;”;

(c) for the definition of “community organisation”, substitute—

““community organisation” means—

(a)

any of the following which has 50 or fewer employees—

(i)

a charity;

(ii)

a community benefit or co-operative society; or

(iii)

a community interest company; or

(b)

a subsidiary (as defined in section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006(5)), wholly owned by a charity, where the subsidiary has 50 or fewer employees and the parent charity has 50 or fewer employees;”.

Article 15

7.  In article 15 (site of accredited FIT installations)—

(a) after paragraph (4)(c), insert—

“(d) at least one of A or B is owned, or is to be owned, by a community organisation and the conditions in paragraph (7) are met.”; and

(b) after paragraph (6) insert—

“(7) The conditions referred to in paragraph (4)(d) are that—

(a) only A and B share, or are to share, the single grid connection referred to in paragraph (3)(a); and

(b) for both A and B—

(i) the Tariff Dates; or

(ii) the Eligibility Dates,

are on or after 1st April 2015.”.

Schedule 2

8.  In paragraph 5 of Schedule 2 (publication of FIT deployment data), omit the definition of “stand-alone solar photovoltaic installation”.

Amber Rudd

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department of Energy and Climate Change

15th January 2015