The Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) Order 2016

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”) to make corrections to amendments to that Order inserted by the Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2015 (“the 2015 Order”), and also amends the 2015 Order by inserting a saving provision.

Article 3 amends article 2 to the 2012 Order so that the expression “qualifies for accreditation” defined in Schedule A to the standard conditions of electricity supply licences has the same meaning in the 2012 Order.

Article 4 amends the following articles of the 2012 Order—

• article 4 (application of this Chapter) to insert a cut-off date of 31st March 2016 so that “excluded transitional applications” made after that date can no longer be accredited. An excluded transitional installation is one that would fall into the definition of transitional installation within the meaning of article 8D(1)(b) had it been made between 15th January and 31st March 2016;

• article 8B (the application limit), paragraph (4)(a)(ii) so that for the purposes of article 8B and 8C (the application limit: adjustments), an application is treated as being received by the Authority in respect of an eligible installation that uses an MCS-FIT technology at the point that the MCS certificate is issued, even if no application is actually made for that installation;

• article 8D (transitional installations), paragraph (1)(b) so that an application for a community energy installation that has been pre-registered under article 11 of the 2012 Order (pre-registration of community energy installations) or a school installation under article 12 of the 2012 Order (pre-registration of school installations), are not transitional installations;

• article 9 (preliminary accreditation), paragraphs (8) and (8A) so that the expression “treated as being received by the Authority” is inserted into those paragraphs with the meaning set out in article 8B(4)(a);

• article 10 (effect of preliminary accreditation), paragraph (3)(b) so that the tariff date for an installation with preliminary accreditation is the later of either the date on which the application is received by the Authority or the beginning of the tariff period in which the application qualifies for accreditation; and

• article 10(4) so that a commissioned installation is materially different to the one for which preliminary accreditation was granted if, among other things, its total installed capacity is greater, or if it has been reduced to the extent that it would have been eligible for a different generation tariff.

Article 5 inserts a new article 35A (FIT applications data) into Part 7 of the 2012 Order (administrative functions of the Authority) and a new Schedule 2 (FIT applications data). Schedule 2 now lists the types of eligible installation in line with column 1 of the table in Schedule 1A to the 2012 Order.

Article 6 inserts a saving provision into article 24(1) of the 2015 Order.

An impact assessment has been prepared in respect of the changes to the FIT scheme effected by the 2015 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.