Guidance

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: qualification and registration

Who qualifies, registration deadline, charges to pay, how to use the CRC registry and closure of CRC.

From:
Environment Agency
Published
8 April 2014
Last updated
12 March 2019 — See all updates

This guidance was withdrawn on

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme has closed. See the closure information for participants.

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme will close once the current compliance year has ended on 31 March 2019.

Government decided to close the scheme after consulting on reforms to the way they tax and regulate business energy efficiency. Legislation allowing the scheme to close - the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Revocation and Savings) Order 2018 came into force on 1 October 2018.

Participants in CRC must carry out their compliance actions for the current compliance year. They must also meet certain record keeping requirements until March 2025. See the CRC closure guidance for more information.

Overview

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is a UK government scheme. It’s designed to improve energy efficiency and cut carbon dioxide emissions in private and public sector organisations that are high energy users.

The Environment Agency administers the scheme for the UK and regulates the scheme in England. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales regulate the scheme in their own countries.

Energy already covered under climate change agreements and the EU Emissions Trading System is not included in CRC.

Some public bodies must take part in CRC regardless of how much electricity they use. These are called mandated participants and they include all UK central government departments and devolved administrations.

CRC operates in phases. Phase 1 ran from April 2010 until the end of March 2014. We are now in phase 2 that runs from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2019. After this the scheme will close.

For each phase, there is a qualification year. Organisations that met certain criteria during the qualification year had to register for the next phase of CRC. The qualification year for phase 2 was between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.

In each compliance year, an organisation that has registered for CRC needs to do the following:

  • collate information about its energy supplies
  • submit a report about its energy supplies
  • buy and surrender allowances equal to the carbon dioxide emissions it generated
  • tell the Environment Agency about changes to its organisation that could affect its registration (designated changes)
  • keep records about its energy supplies and organisation in an evidence pack

CRC: who qualifies

Qualification for CRC is assessed at the group level, not at the individual company or organisation level. You need to identify your entire UK organisational structure, and whether you’re part of a group of companies, to work out if you qualify for CRC phase 2.

Your organisation or group qualifies for CRC phase 2 if, between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013, it met both of the following criteria:

  1. Having at least one settled half hourly electricity meter (sHHM).
  2. Using 6,000 megawatt hours or more of qualifying electricity supplied through settled half hourly meters.

In summary, the steps you need to take to work out if you qualify are:

  1. Identify the full extent of your organisational structure on 31 March 2013.
  2. Identify all the sHHMs within this organisational structure.
  3. Add up the electricity used through those sHHMs in the qualification year 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 for phase 2.
  4. Subtract from this figure any excluded electricity supplies to work out the amount of qualifying electricity you used.

CRC registration deadline

Registration for CRC phase 2 started on 14 November 2013. The deadline for registration was 31 January 2014. If you qualify for CRC, you should have registered by the deadline.

Because the registration deadline has passed we have not provided information here on how to register. If you are registering late, or are still not sure if you need to register, you can:

CRC late registration

Registering late means you could receive a fine of £5,000 with a further fine of £500 per working day until you complete the registration process. The daily fine can be imposed for up to a maximum of 80 working days, up to £40,000.

CRC registry

The Environment Agency will set up your compliance account on the CRC registry once you have registered. Use this account to:

  • access and update contact details or organisation details
  • notify the Environment Agency of any changes to your organisational structure
  • submit your annual report
  • order, buy, surrender and transfer allowances
  • appoint an agent to act on your behalf

Log on to the CRC registry.

The user guide will help you to use your compliance account in the CRC registry.

See the guide ‘Account and organisation changes’ for information about managing your account in the CRC registry.

CRC charges and fees

All participants have to pay a registration fee of £950. You pay this as part of your online registration process. The fee covers the administrative costs of carrying out organisational checks and opening a compliance account on the CRC registry.

Following registration, you have to pay an annual subsistence fee of £1,290. The Environment Agency will send you an invoice in April for each year that you participate in CRC. There is no VAT to pay.

The CRC charging scheme sets out the legal context for charges.

The Environment Agency will not be sending out any more invoices for subsistence fees as the scheme will close on 31 March 2019.

Contact CRC

Updates to this page

Published 8 April 2014
Last updated 12 March 2019 + show all updates

  1. Updated to include information about the closure of CRC.

  2. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page

Contents

Related content