News: Profi le
Applying the brakes
John Field, energy services director at TEAM, reminds installers why the
application process for the non domestic RHI is more than a mere formality
he RHI was set up to parallel the extensive range of
support schemes for renewable electricity which raises
the question of why there have been so few heating
subsidy schemes. The answer highlights a critical issue:
electricity is easy to meter and heat is not. Alongside that,
heating systems have complex fl ows and usually involve traditional
non-renewable heating plant - often in ways (like immersion heaters in
domestic hot water cylinders) that are taken for granted until you need
to know whether the heat you are using is from a renewable thermal
source which an immersion heater is not.
A universal theme has been that the relevant heat fl ows have to
be metered (except for small fractions of system heat such as buried
pipework heat losses) and metering air-transported heat directly is
virtually impossible - hence the scheme mainly concerns water and
steam based heat generation even if the heat is eventually emitted by
air handling plant.
A key stage is obtaining approval from Ofgem which manages
the scheme on behalf of DECC. Potential installations have to be
put through an application process which is designed (and updated
from time to time) to establish that the basic criteria for subsidy are
complied with. This ensures that the eligible renewable heat output
can be metered and not increased either fraudulently or accidently by
traditionally generated heat such as retained gas boilers. The end result
is an involved application process requiring a wide range of information
and evidence and a stated engineering base for the metering.
In many cases other than the simplest, this application must be
supported by an extensive engineer’s report (again with evidence)
setting down how the metering achieves the scheme criteria.
T
Quick and easy: RHI applications can take as little as a fortnight, in the
simplest cases
10 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
This report is titled the
Independent Report on
Metering Arrangements
(IRMA) and has to be
carried out by an ‘unbiased
and impartial’ engineer who
can demonstrate suitable
experience and expertise in
heat metering.
TEAM has highly
qualifi ed engineers with a
track record of delivering
successful IRMAs and RHI
applications for a wide
range of public and private
Case history: John Field, energy
sector clients including
services director at TEAM, says
his company has a strong record of
supermarkets, police
achieving successful RHI applications
authorities, NHS and local
for public and private sector clients
authorities.
The application process is described fully in publicly available
documents on the Ofgem RHI website which you can reach directly
and Ofgem have included some brave attempts at an introductory
guide with dos, don’ts and common errors. The subsidy starts from the
fi rst meter reads which are an important part of the submission of a
successful RHI application to Ofgem.
The RHI starts from the fi rst meter reads
which are an important part of the
submission of a successful application
The time taken for Ofgem to review applications is an important
part of the above processes. Our experience has shown that this can
be as little as two weeks for high quality applications and longer for
more complex ones. The quality of the information provided makes
a signifi cant difference in avoiding review delays, formal queries and
their resolution.
The overall picture at present is therefore that this is a signifi cant
scheme with potentially large and long term subsidy payments but that
the application process requires considerable expertise, attention and
planning. Barring major revisions to the whole scheme (or worse), the
process for longer term review of tariffs is fairly well set down and can
therefore be planned for.