Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme: form and guidance

Guidance

• grant funding - capital support
• grant funding - pre-capital support
• project procurement and delivery deadlines
• additionality
• further information

Grant funding – capital support

Funding will be provided through Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme from the Energy and Climate Change Directorate.

For capital support projects, funding will be offered to cover the capital costs of purchasing, installing and commissioning eligible measures. Where projects combine building maintenance/refurbishment measures with energy measures, only the eligible energy measures will be funded.

Eligible capital costs include financial costs incurred for the purchase of physical assets, costs of project build, installation and construction, costs of project commissioning and non-reclaimable VAT for eligible capital costs.

Applicants will be able to apply for up to £2.5 million worth of capital funding per applicant each year.

Applicants are encouraged to combine several projects on multiple sites in a single application.

Applications for multi-year capital funded projects will be considered on an individual, case-by-case basis under eligible checkpoints.

Single measure energy efficiency projects are no longer eligible under the scheme.

Applicants can use their own funds to top up a project they wish to complete. Public bodies are encouraged to provide a contribution from their own capital or other sources of capital if possible, to enable a greater number of projects to be supported through the grant funding scheme.

Grant conditions will be agreed subject to the conclusion of a successful application process and will include project specific milestones and deliverables, setting out a drawdown schedule for payment of grant funds based on project progress.

Grant funding – pre-capital support (closed)

Applications are currently closed for pre-capital applications. To be notified of future pre-capital funding calls please email GPSEDS@gov.scot to be added to our mailing list.

Funding provided through Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme from the Energy and Climate Change Directorate.

For pre-capital support projects funding will be offered to cover the costs of completing appropriate pre-capital work, such as:

• building energy audits
• specialist technical and financial advice
• options appraisals
• feasibility studies
• business cases
• project planning

Funding will be available for external specialist support only. Costs of existing staff cannot be covered. This fund is targeted to support project delivery and to build a pipeline of investment-ready projects for future deployment, therefore strategic work (such as carbon and estate management strategies) are not eligible for support:

Applicants will be able to apply for up to £60,000 worth of resource funding per applicant. There is no minimum value for applications.

Applicants are encouraged to combine several projects on multiple sites in a single application.

Applicants can use their own funds to top up a project they wish to complete. Public bodies are encouraged to provide a contribution from their own capital or other sources of capital if possible, to enable a greater number of projects to be supported through the grant funding scheme.

Project procurement and delivery deadlines

Public bodies must procure and manage the delivery of the entire project. Procurement routes must be communicated as part of the application process and adhered to throughout project delivery.

Projects must be in a position to complete by the relevant project deadline as outlined below. Funding is not available for projects that cannot deliver to agreed timeframes, and projects that do not complete before their deadline will be liable for any project costs incurred after this date.

With the exception of multi-year delivery projects, all applying projects will be required to complete installation and commissioning by the end of March in the following year.

For the avoidance of doubt:

• any project applying in checkpoints under group 2 will be required to complete delivery by 31 March 2024
• any project applying in checkpoints under group 3 will be required to complete delivery by 31 March 2025
• any project applying in checkpoints under group 4 will be required to complete delivery by 31 March 2026

Applications for multi-year projects will be considered on an individual basis under eligible checkpoints and will have their own agreed deadline for completion.

The applicant is responsible for ensuring that all contractors and consultants involved in the provision of services in relation to the proposed project(s) hold and maintain appropriate professional indemnity insurance to cover all the services to be carried out. Copies of the relevant certificates should also be obtained.

Additionality

Applicants must demonstrate additionality of the proposed project(s) in their application. For the avoidance of doubt, applications are not eligible for support if:

• the measures concerned are required to be installed by law (including building or health and safety legislation)
• the measures are being installed with a view to commercial gain (other than the reduction of costs through increased energy efficiency)
• the installation of the measures concerned has begun and the organisation has entered into a contract to complete the project
• full funding for the project or energy efficiency elements of project has been agreed via another source
• in the Scottish Government’s reasonable opinion, the project would still take place without the grant support

Further information

For further information, application pack requests or any questions of the fund, please email gpseds@gov.scot.