Does my business qualify?

An organisation will said to qualify as a CRC participant if, during the year 2008, it had at least one half-hourly electricity meter established on the half-hourly market and its total half-hourly electricity consumption was more than 6,000 MWh. In other words, if the annual bill of an organization is at least £750,000, it will qualify for the CRC.

A rough estimate indicates that approximately 20,000 private and public sector organisations will be required to participate in the scheme in one way or another. Although the majority of these organizations will only be required to disclose the information only once every few years to let the administrator know about their electricity usage. The larger organizations, on the other hand, will be required not only to record and monitor their carbon emissions from their energy supplies, but also pay for allowances equivalent to their emissions every year. The more CO² an organization emits or the more energy it consumes, the more allowances it will have to buy. This is an incentive for it to lower its energy use and reduce the overall cost of operations. The CRC will cover both – direct emissions and electricity use, including fuel oil and gas.

On the whole, the scheme is expected to have a distinct impact on businesses in the retail and leisure industry, as well as banks, local authorities, central government departments and NHS trusts. If your organisation has its presence at more than one place, all UK operations for it will be grouped together for the purposes of the CRC. The energy consumption is determined as per the rules outlined by the Government in response to the March 2009 Consultation.