Micro Hydro Association

My final response on behalf of mha members has been sent to the EA.  Feel free to add comments on the News and Discussion topics page page

DECC has announced that the European Commission has formally approved the UK's notification of State Aid for the changes to the FITs scheme resulting from Phase 2B of the Comprehensive Review.  This means that the introduction of the new 100-500kW hydro band, and the increase to the micro-CHP tariff, will be effective from the date of approval, 15 March 2013.  Please see the tariff tables on the Ofgem FIT website for the latest rates:

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/Environment/fits/tariff-tables/Documents1/FIT%20Tariff%20Table%201%20April%202013%20Non-PV%20Only.pdf

I have now drafted a response on behalf of the mha to the supplementary consultation by the Environment Agency (EA) on regulating abstraction of water for hydropower.  The response is available here.

There have been hundreds of responses from people with angling interests who have been led to believe there is a threat from hydropower schemes to the rivers they fish.  I am certain that this is not the case for the majority of the small scale hydropower schemes that you generators, potential generators, supporters, and suppliers of services are concerned with.

There are now 170 members of the mha - let all our voices be heard!

DEADLINE FOR RESPONSES: 2 APRIL 2013 23:39

I would ask you to spend the very small amount of time it will take to respond on-line to the EA consultation so that they are not faced with choosing an approach which I believe could act as an extreme constraint on any further micro hydropower development in England and Wales.

There are some concerns with “option 1” of the four options presented by the EA, but I and others deeply involved with hydropower, including the British Hydropower Association, consider it the only option of the four that can be acceptable in the short term. 

For micro hydropower I am, as you will have read before, proposing a much simplified registration process for low impact schemes.  I will be including this redraft of the proposed process with my consultation response.  The redraft incorporates amendments to cover the comments on the first draft that some of you have helpfully provided (see this version showing the amendments).  I will also now be pursuing this draft proposal with DECC, DEFRA, environment agencies and other departments and agencies.

So please submit your response to the EA consultation , even if only to select option 1 as your preferred option of the four (unless of course you disagree!).   The preferred method of response is on-line here:

https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/portal/ho/br/standards/hydro

or you can send an email or postal response to:

Eileen Falkner (hydropowerGPG@environment-agency.gov.uk, 01179344185)
Environment Agency Horizon House
Deanery Road
Bristol BS1 5AH

Ofgem have published an extremely clear factsheet here.  This explains clearly the the ROOFIT process of accreditation is now mandatory and the sole route for any hydropower scheme (under 5MW capacity) to become elgible to receive the FiT.