Thursday 21st of June 2018 | Posted In: Comply, Generate, Renewable energy

Take note Biogas RHI participants – you may need to act now before it’s too late

The deadline for selecting the uplifted biogas Renewable Heat Incentive tariff is tomorrow, 22 June 2018. If you want to take advantage of this tariff uplift you need reply to Ofgem today!

Due to the introduction of new feedstock requirements on the 22 May 2018 for biogas, RHI participants were given a one-time chance to adhere to the incoming rules on feedstock requirements and be able to benefit from a higher RHI rate or be subject to the RHI requirements at their original accreditation date.

All biogas installations that have an accreditation date between 14 December 2016 and the implementation of the new regulations on 21 May 2018 will have received a letter from Ofgem presenting two options, and asking them to choose one. The deadline for responding to these letters is the 22 June 2018 – by default, if an applicant has not selected an option, no tariff uplift will be applied.

The restrictions mean that any biogas producer (for example an AD plant) where some of the feedstocks used are not wastes, may be subject to a reduction in their RHI payments as a result. From the 22 May, all new installations will have to prove (on a regular basis) that at least 50% of their biogas is generated from waste feedstocks. Where this is not the case, a reduction in the payment will be made in proportion to the percentage shortfall in biogas from wastes. For example, if only 30% of the biogas used in an eligible RHI installation was sourced from wastes (the rest from crop-based feedstocks perhaps), then a reduction in RHI payment equal to the shortfall will be applied – in this case the reduction in RHI payments would be (50%-30%)/50% = 40%. 

Importantly, while still biogas combustion, the feedstock restrictions do not apply to installations using gasification (such as woodchip gasification) as a means of biogas production. To ensure these installations will benefit from the increase in RHI rates, operators need to have selected the uplifted tariff option by the 22 June 2018.

If you want any more information please give me a call on 024 7669 6512.