The Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

The Order, which applies to Great Britain, amends the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012 (“the 2012 Order”).

Article 3 amends certain definitions in article 2 of the 2012 Order, in particular the definition for “MCS-certified installation” which has the meaning set out in a new Schedule A1 to the 2012 Order.

Article 4 substitutes a new article 4 of the 2012 Order to provide for the changes to the application of chapter 1 of the 2012 Order (accreditation).

Article 5 amends article 5 (accreditation of eligible installations) of the 2012 Order to prohibit the Authority from accrediting any installations with the pause period (article 8A). It also provides that accreditation is subject to article 8B (the application limit) and that, after the pause period, the Authority will determine applications for accreditation in the order in which they are received by the Authority, or as the case may be, the order in which their MCS certificates were issued. Article 7 inserts a new article 8A (pause period) which provides for a pause period, article 8B (the application limit), which imposes a limit of on the aggregate capacity of eligible installations to be granted accreditation or preliminary accreditation in a tariff period, article 8C (the application limit - adjustments), which provides for that limit to be adjusted for the following tariff period if there is spare capacity and article 8D (transitional installations) which provides for the treatment of eligible installations either applying before the start of the pause period and commissioning after, or, for MCS-certified installations, for those who apply during the pause period but whose MCS Certificate’s issuance date is before the start of the pause period.

Articles 8 and 9 amend article 9 (preliminary accreditation) and article 10 (effect of preliminary accreditation) of the 2012 Order to reintroduce preliminary accreditation from 8th February 2016 and to make such applications subject to the provisions of article 5 so that the Authority considers applications for preliminary accreditation alongside other applications in the order received.

Articles 10 and 11 amend articles 11 (pre-registration of community energy installations) and 12 (pre-registration of schools installations) of the 2012 Order to provide new definitions of eligibility date and tariff date for community energy installations and schools installations.

Article 13 inserts an amended article 16 (calculating and publishing FIT payment rates) into the 2012 Order to provide for the publication of a Quarterly Tariff Table. Articles 14 and 15 amend articles 18 (accreditation of extensions to accredited FIT installations) and 19 (accreditation of extensions to installations which are not accredited FIT installations) of the 2012 Order to prevent any further extensions from being accredited.

Articles 17 to 19 make amendments to the levelisation process including introducing a limit as to the amount of EU generated renewable electricity that can be exempted from the levelisation process.

Article 24 contains saving provisions.

An impact assessment has been prepared in respect of the changes to the FIT scheme effected by the Order and copies can be obtained from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2AW or on www.gov.uk.