The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) – am I affected?

The CRC scheme will capture large public and private sector organisations across the UK. The CRC scheme is likely to have a particular impact on businesses in the leisure and retail sectors (including supermarkets), as well as water companies, banks, local authorities (including state-funded schools), NHS trusts and all central government departments.

All UK operations of an organisation will be grouped together for the purposes of the CRC. You will qualify as a CRC participant based on your half-hourly electricity usage. In the scheme, responsibility for energy consumption is determined according to CRC 'supply' rules as outlined in the Government response to the March 2009 Consultation
(www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/crc/crc.aspx).

Do I qualify?

Your organisation will qualify as a CRC participant if, during the 2008 calendar year, you had at least one half-hourly electricity meter settled on the half-hourly market across your whole organisation and your organisation had a total half-hourly electricity consumption of at least 6,000 MWh.

In the CRC scheme, half-hourly meters include mandatory half-hourly meters, voluntary half-hourly meters, half-hourly light meters, pseudo half-hourly meters and remotely read automatic meter reading (AMR) meters.

Typically, an organisation with an annual energy bill around £750,000 is likely to qualify.

Exemptions

The CRC will cover emissions outside of Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) and outside the direct emissions already covered by the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). In addition, any part of an organisation with more than 25% of its energy use emissions covered by a CCA will be completely exempt from the scheme. Only the specific subsidiary with the CCA will be exempt, rather than the entire organisational group.

AEA is the Government adviser on the CRC scheme