Carbon reduction scheme begins in April

The Government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a scheme devised to enhance energy efficiency by addressing emissions not covered by climate change agreements, will come into force in April.

For those companies that qualify, CRC is a mandatory emissions trading scheme and will affect large organisations in both the public and private sectors.

“Qualification is based on half hourly electricity consumption during 2008,” said Dr David Moore, BCSA Director of Engineering. “And the scheme could apply to many of the BCSA’s larger steelwork fabricators.”

An organisation qualifies as a full participant in CRC if it has one half hourly meter (HHM) settled on the half hourly market, and its annual electricity consumption through all HHMs was at least 6,000MW.

Organisations which have an energy consumption of less than 6,000MW do not have to participate fully in CRC, however they do have to make an information disclosure.

“Any company that has a half hourly meter installed but hasn’t yet collected its total energy consumption from such meters in 2008 should do so now,” said Dr Moore. “Failure to register may lead to a fine when the scheme opens in April.”

A copy of the CRC User Guide can be downloaded from: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/lc_uk/crc/user_guidance/user_guidance.aspx