CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme
Improving your energy efficiency will save you money and improve your organisation’s reputation. The CRC further strengthens the business case for doing this.
There is a clear financial incentive to perform well in the CRC. You will reduce the number of emissions allowances you need to buy if you cut emissions, putting you at a cost advantage to competitors that have not cut emissions.
The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) is a mandatory carbon emissions reporting and pricing scheme to cover all organisations using more than 6,000MWh per year of electricity (equivalent to an annual electricity bill of about £500,000). We will advise our clients if they need to comply with CRC regulations. As part of our AC maintenance contract with our commercial and industrial clients we advise on how to comply with AC legislation, while our energy audits, AC inspections and tools such as ClimaCheck ensure that your AC equipment is both compliant and offers maximum efficiency.
A guide to the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC)
The CRC comprises three primary elements:
1. Emissions reporting requirement
Participants in the CRC will need to measure and report their carbon emissions annually, following a specific set of measurement rules. The first annual report of emissions is due in July 2011.
2. A new carbon price
Starting in 2012, participants will buy allowances from Government each year to cover their emissions in the previous year. This means that organisations that decrease their emissions can lower their costs under the CRC.
3. Ranking of participants in a performance league table
A publicly available CRC performance league table will show how each participant is performing compared to others in the scheme. If your organisation is a good carbon performer, the league table will help give a significant boost to your organisation’s reputation, demonstrating its success in cutting emissions. Your organisation’s league table position each year will be determined by performance in three metrics:
- Early action metric: 50% of your score is based on what percentage of your organisation’s electricity and gas supplies is covered by voluntary automatic meter readings (AMR) in the year to 31 March 2011. The other half is based on the proportion of your CRC emissions certified under the Carbon Trust Standard or an equivalent scheme. Visit www.carbontruststandard.com to find out about achieving the Carbon Trust Standard.
- Absolute metric: The percentage change in your organisation’s emissions, compared to the average of the previous five years (or number of years available until 2014/15).
- Growth metric: the percentage change in emissions per unit turnover, compared to the average of the previous five years (or number of years available until 2014/15).
The weighting of these three metrics will change over time. In the first year, early action will count for 100% of your organisation’s league table score. Over the first few years of the scheme, the early action metric will gradually fade in importance until the absolute and growth metrics receive 75% and 25% weightings respectively in 2014/15 and thereafter.
If you would like to discuss your AC or refrigeration plant in relation to CRC, please get in touch.
