Organisations told to prepare for the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

3 March, 2010

Major energy users have just this month to prepare for the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme – renamed the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) – which comes into effect on 1 April, 2010.

It is expected that 20,000 organisations in both the public and private sectors will be affected and large fines will be imposed on organisations that miss their deadlines.

The emissions trading scheme is intended to address climate change by forcing improvements in energy efficiency. Participants will buy allowances equivalent to their CO2 emissions each year and will be able to sell surplus and buy additional allowances. In the introductory phase, the price of carbon will be fixed at £12/tonne after which it is expected to rise sharply.

Principal from carbon management specialists ENVIRON, Dave Covell, said: “The key is to put monitoring systems in place as soon as possible to comply with the rules and seek advice to identify areas for optimum savings.

Steps that can be taken to improve an organisation’s position now include obtaining the Carbon Trust Standard and implementing Automatic Monitoring Reading (AMR) for all core consumption of electricity and gas, which means that meters are read and recorded remotely.

From April, organisations need to start collating data about their energy usage for the first compliance year (April 2010 - March 2011). By 30 September, organisations have to register or make an information disclosure, or they will be fined.

2010-2011 is the qualification year for the CRC and during this period, organisations have to monitor their half-hourly electricity consumption.

Larger organisations looking to devolve the responsibility for complying with the CRC between its subsidiaries/divisions/etc need to register by the end of June.