FAQs
Will the systems have to be maintained?
Most renewable heat systems need maintenance to keep them operating at their best.
Maintenance is also a requirement for RHI eligibility as described here.
Chapter 3 of the government's RHI announcement says
Maintenance
We need to ensure that the RHI represents value for money, with a clear return in terms of the amount of renewable energy produced for the money spent. As a condition of receiving support, participants will therefore be required to maintain their equipment to ensure it is working effectively.
Clearly, there is a natural incentive for a participant to keep their equipment maintained without any specific requirement, given it will provide their heating or be crucial to their industrial process, however we still believe there is a risk, albeit low, that some may not. There is a risk that poorly maintained equipment will be less efficient and may have a more harmful impact on the environment. We therefore believe a specific requirement is needed.
Views from stakeholders have been mixed as to what maintenance requirements should be put in place, ranging from those who felt an annual service carried out by a certified installer should be required, to those who warned against a ‘one size fits all’ approach, stressing that maintenance requirements varied considerably. Given the wide range of technologies, we do not think it is practical to specify in legislation a particular level of maintenance or frequency of servicing; what would be appropriate for a biomass boiler may not be for a solar thermal system. We think including such a provision risks being excessively burdensome or possibly misleading. Therefore, at this stage, we do not intend to specify a particular level of maintenance and the requirement will simply be that the equipment is maintained in line with any manufacturer instructions where available.
Participants will be required to keep any evidence of maintenance work carried out, for example, servicing receipts and to provide this evidence, on request, to Ofgem. As part of any annual declaration, a participant will also be required to declare that the equipment is maintained. Where Ofgem is concerned that the equipment is not being maintained, it can then seek further evidence and where satisfied that it is not being maintained, take appropriate action.
