Renewables Obligation (RO) buy-out price, mutualisation threshold and mutualisation ceilings for 2024 to 2025

Reports, plans and updates

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RO

The buy-out price for the 2024-25 obligation period is £64.73 per Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC). This is the amount suppliers will need to pay for each ROC they do not present towards compliance with their 2024-25 obligation.

The mutualisation ceilings for the 2024-25 obligation period are £389,971,869.12 in England and Wales and £38,997,186.89 in Scotland (mutualisation does not apply in Northern Ireland). Mutualisation will be triggered in the event of a relevant shortfall in the buy-out fund. You can find the definition and amounts of relevant shortfall for each obligation period in Article 72 (3) in the Renewables Obligation Order 2015 as amended by the Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order 2021, and Article 48 (3) and Schedule 3 in The Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Order 2009 as amended by The Renewables Obligation (Scotland) Amendment Order 2023.

We update the buy-out price and mutualisation ceilings annually to reflect the average monthly percentage change in the Retail Prices Index (RPI) during the previous calendar year. The average RPI percentage change during the 2023 calendar year was 9.7% (Source: Office for National Statistics).

In line with the current legislation, we update the England and Wales mutualisation threshold (effective from the 2021-22 Compliance Year) and Scotland mutualisation threshold (effective from 2023-24 Compliance Year) annually based on the value of the scheme.

The buy-out prices and obligation levels for recent years are shown in the table below:

Obligation Period (1 April - 31 March) Buy-out Price Obligation For England and Wales and Scotland (ROCs/MWh) Obligation For Northern Ireland (ROCs/MWh)
2010-2011 £36.99 0.111 0.0427
2011-2012 £38.69 0.124 0.055
2012-2013 £40.71 0.158 0.081
2013-2014 £42.02 0.206 0.097
2014-2015 £43.30 0.244 0.107
2015-2016 £44.33 0.290 0.119
2016-2017 £44.77 0.348 0.142
2017-2018 £45.58 0.409 0.167
2018-2019 £47.22 0.468 0.185
2019-2020 £48.78 0.484 0.190
2020-2021 £50.05 0.471 0.185
2021-2022 £50.80 0.492 0.194
2022-2023 £52.88 0.491 0.193
2023-2024 £59.01 0.469 0.184
2024-2025 £64.73 0.491 (see note below) 0.192

Note: The GB Obligation level originally set by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for 2024-25 RO year was 0.487 ROCs per MWh. On 26 March 2024, they announced that it has been revised to 0.491 ROCs per MWh. This is to take into account the recent amendment to the legislation that permits the change in the exemption for EIIs in Great Britain from the indirect costs of the RO – details of which are set out in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s updated webpage: Calculating the level of the Renewables Obligation for 2024 to 2025.

The mutualisation thresholds for England and Wales and Scotland for recent years are shown in the table below:

Obligation Period (1 April – 31 March) England and Wales Mutualisation Threshold Scotland Mutualisation Threshold
2022-2023 £65,800,000 £1,540,000
2023-2024 £72,200,000 £7,200,000
2024-2025 £79,000,000 £7,900,000

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