npower highlights dangers of missing CRC deadlines
7 Jul 2010
London – Energy firm npower has issued a warning to businesses and the public sector that they risk facing financial and reputational penalties unless they act fast to meet the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) deadlines.
The alert comes as Environment Agency data released on 28 June showed 522 of an anticipated 5,000 full CRC participants registered just 10% of full participants have registered for the scheme at the half way point of the six month registration window.
Those that are still to register are also now at significant risk of missing out on the opportunity to disaggregate, which requires initial registration to be completed by 31st July.
The CRC’s disaggregation option allows those businesses with several subsidiaries to register them as separate participants, providing each meets the qualifying criteria. It means that dissimilar organisations within the same group ownership can be separated to prevent one being unduly influenced by the other.
The Environment Agency extended the deadline for disaggregation by one month in response to business concerns, but npower believes many will still face difficulties in meeting the new date.
Dave Lewis, head of business energy services, explains:
“Disaggregation could be a potentially valuable route for many businesses and to simply dismiss it as an administrative task could see many miss out. CRC participation is typically established at a group level, but being able to register companies separately could make collating data and submitting ongoing evidence packs simpler.
“There’s also the reputational benefits to consider. If the parent company’s name is little known publicly, for example, it could miss out on the brand value associated with a high position in the CRC league table.
“Bearing in mind the registrations that have been completed to date, we expect many to miss out on disaggregation, even with the extension, and instead be faced with managing CRC at a group level. This will bring its own challenges as data will need to be compiled and submitted for the whole group.
“The slow rate of registration so far also indicates that many organisations may not be actively tracking their energy use from 1st April this year in preparation for the year end footprint report. The longer organisations take to track this, the more challenging the task will become,” he adds.
It is these challenges that npower is concerned many organisations are failing to manage, which could see them facing fines for late registration. Any participant that misses the final registration deadline of 30th September will incur an immediate fine of £5,000, plus an additional £500 per working day past the deadline, up to a maximum of 80 days. Non-compliance will also be published.
“Compiling all the data needed to register for CRC is no small task and while many are working hard to bring this together, time is running out,” Lewis says.
It is the reality of financial penalty that npower believes will lead many organisations to call on external support, particularly during the holiday months when internal resources are under pressure. npower’s own service, CRC Assist, which manages registration and ongoing participation in the CRC on behalf of organisations is proving increasingly popular, which the energy firm expects to continue.
“Participants need the peace of mind that CRC registration is taken care of. Calling on external expertise is proving the ideal route for many still grappling with the demands of the scheme,” says Lewis.
