Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2009 amendments consultation: partial business and regulatory impact assessment

Introduction

The Renewables Obligation (RO) has incentivised UK renewable electricity generation since 2002 through a system of tradable green certificates called “Renewables Obligation Certificates” (ROCs).

Three separate but complementary Renewables Obligation schemes cover the UK. The RO and the Renewables Obligation Scotland (ROS) were introduced in 2002, and the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation (NIRO) was introduced in 2005. The UK government is responsible for the legislation for the RO scheme for England and Wales. The Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are responsible for the legislation for their respective schemes. All schemes are administered by Ofgem.

The UK Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive are proposing to change how the costs of the RO schemes are adjusted for inflation in future. This partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) is being undertaken due to the potential for this proposed change to have minor financial impacts on domestic and non-domestic electricity bill payers and renewable electricity generators in Scotland.

This is a partial BRIA, as the final decision is subject to the outcome of a joint UK Government, Northern Ireland Executive and Scottish Government consultation. A final BRIA will be published following the outcome of the consultation.