No, there will be no weather correction to annually reported emissions when formulating the performance league table.
The Absolute Metric compares the participant’s current annual emissions to its average emissions over the preceding five years. In the first five years of the scheme, current emissions will be compared against the average over the years available.
The Early Action Metric is based on two elements, equally weighted, which have been chosen as a representation of good energy management:
- The percentage of a participant’s emissions from electricity and gas (excluding those covered by mandatory half-hourly electricity meters) which is covered by voluntarily-installed automatic metering (AMR) by the end of March 2011.
- The percentage of the Participant’s annually reported CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme emissions covered by the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS) or equivalent at the end of each year of the introductory phase.
Electricity meters that qualify as 'Automatic meters' for use in the AMR element of the Early Action Metric are those that have been installed on a voluntary basis and meet the following four criteria:
- The meter is capable of capturing supply data on at least a half-hourly (HH) basis;
- The meter must be the “metering device that measures the electricity supply for charging purposes”. (For electricity meters, it cannot be a clip-on or sub metering device);
- The meter is read remotely. (Read remotely means that the data are not accessed at the meter itself – the remote reading may be made by the customer or a third party.);
- The electricity supply data is made available to the customer*.
Gas meters that qualify as 'automatic meters' for use in the AMR element of the Early Action Metric are those that have been installed on a voluntary basis and meet the following four criteria:
- The meter (together with an ancillary device), is capable of capturing supply data on at least an hourly basis;
- The meter must be the “metering device that measures the gas supply for charging purposes”. (For gas, an ancillary device used for charging purposes would count);
- The meter is read remotely. (Read remotely means that the data are not accessed at the meter itself – the remote reading may be made by the customer or a third party.);
- The gas supply data is made available to the customer*.
*Data from AMR meters do not necessarily need to be directly received by the customer but must be available to them if requested.
Half hourly settled meters not required under the Balancing and Settlement code on a mandatory basis will count as voluntary AMR.
As of 1 April 2009, government introduced a mandate for energy suppliers to roll out AMR metering to profile class 5 – 8 sites and gas sites consuming more than 72,300kWh per year. Where meters are installed to comply with this mandate, they will still be considered as voluntary AMR meters in the CRC.
Therefore, AMR metering installed before 1 April 2011 will be treated as voluntary within the CRC and count towards the AMR element of the early action metric.
Yes, for an electricity meter to count towards the AMR metric it needs to be the main fiscal meters not sub-meters or devices connected to the main meter. This means that it will be the meter that records consumption for the purposes of your energy supply contract.
For a gas meter to qualify for AMR it must meet several criteria, including the meter being the main fiscal meter and not a sub-metering device. A participant would also need to consume more than 73,200kWh of gas through that meter during the footprint year.
For further advice we recommend you contact your energy supplier.
No, ‘half-hourly AMR meters’ are defined as those electricity meters which are capable of ascertaining the amount of electricity supplied on an half-hourly (or more frequent) basis – and which are read remotely by the customer. The CRC will only capture AMR meters that are the main meters measuring the amount of electricity supplied to a premises, not sub-meters or clip-on devices.
For the purposes of calculating AMR coverage for the Early Action metric the following types of gas meters count as AMR meters:
- Non mandatory daily meters
- Hourly meters.
In the unlikely scenario that a participant has all its electricity and gas supplied through automatic meters installed on a mandatory basis, it will score 50 per cent in the AMR element of the Early Action Metric, because it has no scope for improvement for this element of the early action metric. A score of 50 per cent gives it a neutral position in the league table for this element of the metric.
Certain types of gas meters need to be included in the CRC on a mandated basis as 'core sources'. These include: gas measured through daily read meters; through remotely read gas AMR meters; and through all non-daily read gas meters where consumption exceeds 73,200 kWh per year.
The Growth Metric gives some credit to those organisations that can grow efficiently within a capped scheme. For example, a participant’s emissions may have gone up by 5 per cent over five years, but its turnover may have increased by 50 per cent over the same five years, and the Growth Metric would reward this efficient growth.
The Growth Metric measures the change in emissions per unit turnover, relative to the annual average over the preceding five years. Revenue expenditure will be used for participants that do not have a turnover figure.
Formulated in this way, the metric will not disadvantage relatively energy-intensive organisations, as it will not be measuring absolute levels of energy intensity, but instead will give credit for improvement in energy efficiency.
The participant should submit an audited and published turnover (or revenue expenditure) figure for the most recent financial year that corresponds most closely with the emissions reporting year.
No, the Growth Metric is based on the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme participant’s UK operations turnover and not global sales.
Participants will be allowed to use a total expenditure figure from their audited accounts that does not include any capital expenditure and which is consistently applied each year. This can be turnover or expenditure.
A participant’s performance in both the absolute metric and the growth metric will be assessed using its average annual CRC emissions during the preceding five years of the scheme, or since the scheme started, whichever is the shorter period.
The first CRC compliance year is 2010-2011. No growth metric or absolute metric is calculated for this year. In the second compliance year, 2011-2012, the growth and absolute metrics will be based on performance against just the previous year.
In the third compliance year 2012-2013, the growth and absolute metrics will be based on the average performance of the previous two years. The number of years the rolling average performance is based upon will increase until performance in the absolute and growth metrics is based on a rolling average of the previous five years.
For a scheme to qualify as equivalent to the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS) the following criteria must be met:
- Data is required over a three-year period and must demonstrate either an absolute emissions reduction or at least a 2.5 per cent per annum relative emissions reduction.
- The reductions cannot be achieved through the use of offsets, and (consistent with the CRC) all purchased electricity must be treated at grid average.
- Reductions are measured in terms of emissions rather than energy consumption.
- A high quality energy or carbon management system is required focusing on measurement, management and reduction and that is transparent.
- The same assessment criteria are applied to all sectors and regions captured under the CRC.
- It is available to all CRC prticipants.
- Verification is achieved only on the basis of proven emissions reductions and not wider environmental impact management actions and,
- The assessment process requires a high standard of data and evidence.
- Verification can only be achieved on the basis of proven emissions reductions rather than wider environmental impact management actions.
- A high standard of data and evidence is required as part of the assessment process.
In addition, verification of a prticipant’s certification with a standard that is managed by an independent and competent authority must be undertaken by an independent, accredited third party or parties. The certifying body will also need to provide the administrator with data or assistance to enable verification of the participant’s claims with minimal burden on participants.
Government will not be issuing a definitive list of equivalent standards. However, there is a process by which a provider of a standard can apply to the Environment Agency and request verification of its CTS equivalent standard to establish that it can be recognised as equivalent standard to the CTS.
More specific guidance on the criteria for Carbon Trust Standards is found in Department of Energy and Climate Change’s ‘Guidance on the Early Action Metric Under the CRC Energy Saving Scheme’.
Schemes which do not meet the criteria outlined above will not be recognised as early action in CRC. For example, ISO14001 certification does not meet the criteria because it focuses on a broader range of environmental impacts than just carbon emissions and also do not require actual reductions in emissions to be made.
Any emissions certified under the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme will count towards the Early Action Metric.
The growth metric measures the change in emissions per £ turnover (or revenue expenditure for organisations that do not have a turnover figure) relative to the annual average emissions per unit turnover over the preceding five years. Formulated in this way, the metric will not disadvantage relatively energy intensive organisations within the CRC, as it will not be measuring absolute levels of energy intensity. Instead, it would give credit for improvement in energy efficiency.
The growth metric will not be based on how much an organisation spends on electricity or other fuel supplies, but on the change in emissions per unit turnover.
The metric weightings for the league table will be as follows:
Early action metric: Year 1(2010/2011) = 100%. Year 2(2011/2012) = 40%. Year 3(2012/2013) = 20%.
Absolute metric: Year 1(2010/2011) = 0%. Year 2(2011/2012) = 45%. Year 3(2012/2013) = 60%.
Growth metric: Year 1(2010/2011) = 0%. Year 2(2011/2012) = 15%. Year 3(2012/2013) = 20%.
