GGF Concern Over ECO2 Plans

The Government is extending ECO (Energy Company Obligation), introducing a new obligation period from April 2015 to March 2017, termed ‘ECO2’.  The Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) Order 2014 (the ‘ECO2 Order’) sets out the requirements for ECO2. As administrator of the scheme, Ofgem will publish guidance for energy companies, and are consulting on changes to the scheme where they are exercising their discretion in administering new legislative provisions, or where they are making further improvements to their current ECO policies.

As part of the stakeholder engagement for this consultation, Ofgem is inviting expressions of interest for a number of workshops that will be run in w/c 5 January 2015 and w/c 12 January 2015. Each session will feature an introductory presentation on the full list of changes and, to maximize the success of the workshops.

These workshops will take place in Cardiff, Glasgow and London and will include the following discussion topics:

1.Pre-existing roof-insulation requirements

2.Cavities which cannot be insulated:

3.Calculating the lifetime for multi-fuel upgrades of existing DHS connections

4.Qualifying electric storage heaters

5.Qualifying boilers: not functioning efficiently

6.Virgin loft insulation: new requirements

7.Technical monitoring process: revisions

Nigel Rees commented on the extension plans, “Though the extension is welcome it is quite unbelievable that replacement windows are not included as a discussion topic in the workshops and are clearly not in the plans for change within the scheme. This is more frustrating for our industry because currently under ECO the only windows that qualify for the scheme are single glazed. How can fuel poverty be properly addressed when those suffering the effects are unable to upgrade their inefficient double glazing which may be decades old? The GGF will be contacting Ofgem, demanding answers as to why glazing is not part of the ECO2 plans.”