Ofgem E-Serve’s approach to administering the ECO transition scheme

Guidance

Publication date

Scheme name

ECO

From April 2017 an extension to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme will come into operation. As the administrator of ECO we are working hard to ensure a smooth transition to the new scheme, avoiding any disruption to the delivery of energy efficiency measures to British households.

The proposed changes to the scheme are set out in the government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO): Help to Heat consultation, which closed on 17 August 2016, and the draft regulations published alongside the consultation. 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is aiming to respond to their consultation in December 2016, or soon after. This will confirm whether proposed changes, such as the introduction of deemed scores and changes to scheme eligibility, will be introduced from 1 April 2017. 

To mitigate the impact of short time frames between the approval of the regulations in Parliament (expected mid-February 2017) and the beginning of the scheme year (April 2017) we are running a phased consultation covering our proposed administrative approach. 

Our recently published ECO2 transition consultation (part one) seeks views on our proposed administration of the changes outlined in the BEIS consultation and included in the draft amendments to the ECO2 Order.

The second consultation, ECO2t part two, will be published after the government's response to the ECO: Help to Heat consultation is published.

Consultation events

We are keen to engage with stakeholders on our proposed administrative approach and are holding consultation workshops across the country. These are detailed below:  

  • London - 25 October, 14:00-16:30, 9 Millbank, London SW1P 3GE
  • Glasgow - 1 November, 14:00-16:30, Jurys Inn, 80 Jamaica St., Glasgow G1 4QC
  • Cardiff - 3 November, 14:00-16:30, 1 Caspian Point, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4DQ

If you are interested in attending one of these sessions then please email ECO@ofgem.gov.uk.

These workshops complement a range of other stakeholder forums we are hosting in preparation for the ECO transition year, including the ECO Industry Fraud Prevention & Compliance Committee (next meeting on 19 October). Here, Ofgem E-Serve and obligated energy suppliers will share best practice around fraud and compliance issues and work to ensure that consumers are protected from any harm during the ECO transition year.

Upcoming meetings of the ECO reporting working group and ECO suppliers’ forum will also allow key stakeholders to feed into the design of our administration of the transition year.

We hope to have scheme guidance in place during April 2017, and encourage all stakeholders to provide feedback to our ECO transition consultation (part one) consultation which closes on 23 November 2016.

If you have any questions on our proposed approach please contact us at ECO@ofgem.gov.uk.