Renewable Obligation: Number of ROCs Presented Towards 2017/18 UK Obligation

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RO

Total obligation: 117,842,123 ROCs.

The Renewables Obligation (RO) requires licensed electricity suppliers to source a proportion of the electricity they supply to UK customers from renewable sources. We set suppliers’ obligations as a number of Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs). The obligation levels for 2017/18, announced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 1 October 2016 are:

  • 0.409 ROCs per MWh of electricity supplied to customers in England, Wales and Scotland
  • 0.167 ROCs per MWh of electricity supplied to customers in Northern Ireland

Using these obligation levels and multiplying by the total electricity supplied (MWh) to UK customers during this obligation period (1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018), the total obligation for 2017/18 is 117,842,123 ROCs. Split out for each obligation this is:

  • 105,683,001 ROCs in England and Wales
  • 10,838,475 ROCs in Scotland
  • 1,320,647 ROCs in Northern Ireland.

Suppliers were able to meet their obligations for 2017/18 by 1 September 2018 (31 August for buy-out payments) by:

  • Presenting ROCs to us
  • Making a buy-out payment of £45.58 per ROC
  • Using a combination of ROCs and a buy-out payment.

Any suppliers who did not meet their obligations in full by 1 September need to make a late payment by 31 October.

We have recently redistributed the Renewables Obligation (RO) buy-out fund for 2017/18. Details of the obligations and total payments for each RO scheme are shown in the Table 1 below.

Table 1

Obligation

 Total Obligation (ROCs) ROCs presented by suppliers Percentage of obligation met by ROCs Buy-out payments made by suppliers (rounded to nearest pound) Buy-out redistributed
England & Wales (RO) 105,683,001 92,054,861 87.1% £526,038,495 £524,074,401
Scotland (ROS) 10,838,475 10,100,262 93.2% £26,693,512 £24,746,854
Northern Ireland (NIRO) 1,320,647 1,065,756 80.7% £10,801,229 £10,724,439
Total 117,842,123 103,220,879 87.6%

£563,533,237

 £559,545,694

Suppliers that presented ROCs towards their obligations and have fully discharged their obligation received buy-out fund recycle payments on 16 October 2018. Suppliers that are due to make a late payment will receive any recycle payment owed to them once their obligation has been discharged.

The amounts to be redistributed are shown in the far-right column in Table 1. We reached these values by withdrawing our and UR's administration costs, factoring in interest and rounding down the redistribution amounts to the nearest whole pound. Suppliers received approximately £5.42 for each ROC they presented. The proportion of the total ROCs each supplier presented, and therefore the share of buy-out payments they received or are owed, is shown in Table 2 (rounded to 2 decimal places).

There was a combined shortfall of £102,903,066.44 in the England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland buy-out funds. This was due to thirty-four suppliers not meeting their total obligations by the above deadlines. These suppliers consequently owe late payments.

The deadline for suppliers to make late payments is 31 October 2018 and we will redistribute them before 1 January 2019. This will include interest paid by the suppliers at an annualised rate of 5.75% (5% + Bank of England base rate) as well as interest earned on the funds while in our accounts. When we redistribute the late payments we will also confirm the final recycle value, which will include an extra amount on top of the £5.42.

For more information, contact: RECompliance@ofgem.gov.uk.