February 2010 meeting discusses feed-in tariffs, BSUoS and Project Discovery

Another full agenda for February’s meeting. A long and in-depth discussion was held on the final proposals for the introduction of feed-in tariffs (FiTs). Keith Maclean, representing the UKBCSE, provided his views on work that was still needed to be completed before the new FiTs regime went live in April of this year. He said the work included: supplier system interfaces with the Ofgem registry; complaint handling; understanding what parties are responsible for network charges; and clarification of the supplier costs that will be included in the levelisation process.

A second visitor, Ricky Hill from Centrica, outlined a modification proposal to introduce a smoothing mechanism for BSUoS payments to try and increase the predictability of cash flows for suppliers.

Ofgem’s policy options included in its Project Discovery consultation were debated—some of which have significant implications for smaller suppliers. The possible impacts of these will be discussed in more detail at the next meeting in March.

Other areas of discussion included:

• final TNUoS charges;
• BSC and CUSC Panel updates;
• UNC252 modification and the impact on credit arrangements for members;
• the renewable heat incentive proposals; and
• the extra-high voltage common distribution charging methodology workstream.

The next meeting of the forum will be held on 3 March. For queries and comments, please contact us.