E-Serve spotted more than 8,000 over-claims using industry data to check generating stations’ export volumes against their monthly claims for ROCs under the Renewables Obligation scheme.
The Renewables Obligation is one of the main support mechanisms for renewable electricity projects in the UK, requiring energy suppliers to source a percentage of their electricity from renewable generation. Generators participating in the obligation must submit their output volumes to Ofgem E-Serve in order to receive ROCs which can then be traded with energy suppliers as proof of meeting their obligation.
Ofgem E-Serve renewable generation manager Ed Nelson said: “With more than 28GW of capacity now accredited and operational under the scheme, we can issue in excess of £400 million worth of ROCs to operators in a single month.
“For a publicly-funded scheme, this efficiency improvement saves money by spotting errors and instances of non-compliance early, and ultimately benefits energy consumers.”
In the past 12 months, Ofgem E-Serve has corrected 30,988 ROCs with a value of more than £1.3 million, with errors arising from over- and under-claims.
In March this year, the government announced in its Budget that E-Serve will be split off from Ofgem as part of efforts to streamline the regulator and allow it to focus on promoting effective competition in the market.