by Roger Milne
Suppliers have more time than expected to test their Green Deal billing systems after the government conceded that although the scheme would launch in October, the first loan plans would not be in place until next year.
This admission came as energy secretary Ed Davey announced the publication of long-awaited secondary legislation for the scheme and clarified key elements. These include changes to the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) and warranty arrangements, tightening of rules on cold calling and the impartiality of assessors, and a definitive list of 45 allowable measures.
Major uncertainties remain. The government is not yet in a position to announce who will act as the Green Deal registration and oversight body, nor who will provide the ombudsman and investigation service function originally earmarked for the existing energy ombudsman service.
Also unfinished is the incentive scheme (worth £200 million) intended to ensure early take-up of the programme, and the brokerage arrangements between Eco
and Green Deal financing.
The Eco regime, which will be policed by Ofgem, has been revised to involve a third element, the Carbon Saving Communities Obligation, which will target solid wall, loft and cavity wall insulation for deprived communities. Fifteeen per cent of this obligation will involve rural areas and settlements with fewer than 10,000 people.
Ministers have decided that suppliers will be able to deliver solid wall insulation and non-standard cavity wall insulation under the Eco’s Carbon Saving Obligation. The Department of Energy and Climate Change estimates that the impact of the Eco changes should benefit an extra 100,000 households a year.
Meanwhile, there is a wrangle over crucial start-up funding for the Green Deal Finance Company, the non-profit consortium intended to underwrite low-cost loans for households.
All big six energy suppliers are members and some have written to ministers saying delays in this support, likely to come from the Green Investment Bank, jeopardise the Green Deal rollout.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 15 June 2012.
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