What is the Renewables Obligation (RO)?
The RO is the main support mechanism for renewable electricity projects in the UK. Smaller scale generation is mainly supported through the Feed-In Tariff scheme (FITs) and further information about FITs is available here.
The RO came into effect in 2002 in England and Wales and in Scotland and in 2005 in Northern Ireland. It places an obligation on UK electricity suppliers to source an increasing proportion of electricity they supply to customers from renewable sources. For information on how the obligation level is set each year please see the Department of Energy and Climate Change website - link opens in a new browser window.
Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) are green certificates issued by the Authority to operators of accredited renewable generating stations for the eligible renewable electricity they generate. Operators can then trade the ROCs with other parties, with the ROCs ultimately being used by suppliers to demonstrate that they have met their obligation.
Where suppliers do not have sufficient number of ROCs to meet their obligation, they must pay an equivalent amount into a ‘buy-out’ fund. The administration cost of the scheme is recovered from the fund and the rest is distributed back to suppliers in proportion to the number of ROCs they produced in respect of their individual obligation.
Key documents
The key documents relevant to all generating stations applying under the RO are available at the bottom of this page. In addition to these, if your generating station is a fuelled station please refer to the Fuelled Stations section of our website for information specific to stations using fuels.
How to make an application
In order to make an application for accreditation under the RO as a renewable generator, applicants will first need to register for an account on the Renewables and CHP Register. Once this account has been activated, users can access it and apply for accreditation, make the relevant declarations, submit monthly output data and receive/transfer their ROCs. More information about this process can be found here.
Buy-out price and mutualisation ceiling
The buy-out price and mutualisation ceilings for the Renewable Obligation are announced by Ofgem at the beginning each year. These are updated annually to reflect changes in the Retail Prices Index. Information for each compliance year can be found here.
Further information:
If you have any questions relating to the Renewables Obligation, please call our Renewables team hotline on 020 7901 7310 or email: renewable@ofgem.gov.uk
If you are an electricity supplier and have any queries relating to compliance with the Renewables Obligation please contact Peter Collins at rocompliance@ofgem.gov.uk
If you are a fuelled generator and have a query regarding fuel measurement and sampling, please contact Richard Bellingham on richard.bellingham@ofgem.gov.uk or 0207 901 1886 or Amy Ling on amy.ling@ofgem.gov.uk or 0207 901 7442.