FAQs

No; the principle of ‘grandfathering’ will apply. Once an installation is registered for the RHI its tariff is fixed, apart from index-linking for inflation.

Chapter 6 of the government’s RHI announcement says

Fixed levels of support following review changes (Grandfathering)

In order to provide the certainty required for sustained growth in renewables the Government is committed to the principle of ‘grandfathering’, where support levels for existing installations are guaranteed. The intention of grandfathering is to provide certainty to those investing in renewable heat installations about the level of support they will receive under the RHI.

This means that any changes to support levels resulting from a review would only affect new projects accredited on or after the date that new tariff levels are implemented. For example, if an installation is accredited from March 2015 and the tariff level received for that technology is changed in April 2015 following a review, that installation will continue to receive the same tariff level regardless of any change made. However, an installation accredited in May 2015 would be given the new tariff level.