Essential Maintenance to the RHI Register
The RHI register will be unavailable on Friday 24th May 2013 19:00pm – Saturday 25th May 2013 19:00pm for essential maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Welcome
Welcome to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Whether you simply wish to find out a little about the scheme, check its eligibility criteria or need advice in completing the application form or submitting readings for payments you’ve come to the right place. Here you’ll find information and guide documents to help every step of the way and details of our Enquiry helpline which is staffed by RHI experts.
What is the Renewable Heat Incentive?
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a new Government environmental programme that provides financial incentives to increase the uptake of renewable heat. Broadly speaking it provides a subsidy, payable for 20 years, to eligible, non-domestic renewable heat generators and producers of biomethane based in Great Britain. Of course this is subject to the detailed scheme rules.
Ofgem is responsible for implementing and administering the scheme on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
What is the purpose of the scheme?
By providing a long-term financial incentive, the objective of the RHI is to significantly increase the proportion of heat generated from renewable sources. By driving change in a heat sector currently dominated by fossil fuel technologies, the RHI can help the UK meet EU targets to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy security. In addition there’s also the wider potential of developing ‘green jobs’.
Who is the scheme for?
Currently, the Renewable Heat Incentive is open to parties in the non-domestic sector which includes industrial, commercial, public sector and not-for-profit organisations with eligible installations and to producers of biomethane. In the context of the scheme, a non-domestic installationis a renewable heat unit that supplies large-scale industrial heating right down to small community heating projects. This includes for example small businesses, hospitals and schools, as well as district heating schemes for example where one boiler serves multiple homes. All applications are subject to the detailed scheme rules.
How the scheme works – in a nutshell
This shows a high level end-to-end process for an RHI participant:
Future extension of the RHI
Although only non-domestic sectors are currently supported, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) which develops the policy and sets the tariffs, has stated that it intends to extend the RHI. Among other things this is expected to increase the number of technologies and fuels which are eligible and also extend the RHI to the domestic sector. Information about this is on DECC’s website.
In the interim, a domestic installation may be eligible for support under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP). This is a scheme specifically designed to provide funding towards the cost for domestic householders installing a renewable heat technology in their home.
The Renewable Heat Premium Payment is not administered by Ofgem but by DECC and the Energy Saving Trust and you should visit their websites for more information about it.
For biomethane producers
Biomethane producers are treated differently to other participants in the RHI. This is because the Government has decided that the regulations and standards currently in place for biomethane injection are sufficient to ensure that the RHI requirements are met, so no further RHI-specific accreditation standards are necessary. As a result the Regulations describe the process for biomethane producers as ‘registration’ rather than ‘accreditation’.
For more information about registration requirements for biomethane producers see RHI Guidance Volume 1, chapter 8.
Contact us
Should you not find the information you’re looking for on the website or in the guide material please contact us:
By telephone: 0845 200 2122 (RHI enquiry line open Monday to Thursday 9am-5pm and to 4.30pm on Fridays)
By email: rhi.enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk
Note: Calls may be recorded.