Contracts for Difference (CfD): second allocation round
Documents and guidance related to the Contracts for Difference second allocation round (AR2).
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is the government’s main mechanism for supporting low-carbon electricity generation.
This page sets out the second allocation round auction results, and key documents relating to that round.
Allocation Round 2 (AR2) ran from March to September 2017.
Auction results
Supply chain plan guidance
This supply chain plan guidance for AR2 set out the details of how projects greater than or equal to 300MW could apply for a supply chain plan statement and how such requests were assessed.
Statutory notices
A series of statutory notices were published in March 2017 to officially launch AR2, as required by secondary legislation. This included the Budget Notice and its accompanying note, setting out strike prices, delivery years and details of the maxima for that allocation round. Less established technologies competed for an annual budget of £290 million for the delivery years 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023.
The Strike Price Methodology explained the underpinning methodology and objectives for setting the CfD strike prices contained in the Budget Notice.
CfD contract
The CfD Standard Terms and Conditions and front-end CfD agreements used in the second CfD Allocation Round were issued in March 2017. They had been revised following the first CfD Allocation Round as a result of consultations in 2015 and 2016.
Allocation Framework
The Allocation Framework outlined the rules under which the second CfD Allocation Round was governed (in line with the Contracts for Difference (Allocation) Regulations 2014).
Consultations ahead of Allocation Round 2 (AR2)
The government response to the consultation on non-mainland GB wind is available from Annex 1 of the final government response to the CfD: proposed amendments to the scheme.
The government response to the Fuelled and Geothermal Technologies Call for Evidence confirmed that we set the administrative strike price for this technology at £140/MWh. That strike price was included in the Budget Notice.