News - 2nd March 2010

The government yesterday urged businesses to ensure they are ready for the introduction of its Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) energy efficiency scheme when it comes into effect at the start of next month.

Under the scheme, any organisation with half-hourly electricity meters – an estimated 20,000 firms and public sector bodies – will have to register with the Environment Agency, while about 5,000 of the heaviest electricity users will have to partake in the full scheme and report annually on their energy use and carbon emissions.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said such companies will have until September to register with the Environment Agency, although those organisations using more than 6,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity a year will be required to begin measuring how much power they use from 1 April.

They will have to file emission data with the government from next year, which will be used to compile a national league table based on organisations' carbon emissions and energy efficiency improvements.

Source: See businessgreen for the full article.