Environmental and social schemes
Ofgem's role
Ofgem administers renewable energy and social schemes on behalf of the government. Our administration of the energy and social programmes aligns with our activities as a regulator and these programmes focus on renewable heat, renewable electricity, energy efficiency and fuel poverty.
We work with energy companies, consumer groups and other stakeholders, including the UK’s elected representatives and other delivery partners across government, to make sure policy targets are met in an economical and consumer conscious way.
Supplier obligations
Licenced electricity suppliers in Great Britain are obligated under many of these environmental and social schemes. The nature and level of obligations depend on a supplier’s:
- licence types (gas or electricity)
- supply volumes
- domestic supply customer count
To help suppliers meet these obligations, we have briefly outlined the purpose and requirements for each environmental and social scheme along with links to further information in our guide: Supplier obligations: environmental and social schemes.
Supplier Performance Report
The Supplier Performance Report documents incidents where energy suppliers have not complied with their obligations under the environmental, energy efficiency and social programmes we administer on behalf of the government.
The schemes we administer
Counter fraud
We take allegations of fraud very seriously. To find out how to report suspected fraud within an environmental or social scheme, or to learn more about our role in preventing fraud, please see the counter fraud web page.
Our performance
Our data shows details of our performance against our 3 key indicators:
- how quickly we respond to stakeholders.
- how long payments and processing take.
- the availability of our IT systems for scheme participants
Scheme performance indicators
Every year we commit to upholding specific service levels for the GB Domestic and Non-Domestic RHI, Feed-In-Tariffs, Renewables Obligation, Energy Company Obligation and Warm Home Discount schemes. These are documented within the key performance indicators section of the Ofgem Forward Work Programme. Meeting or exceeding these indicators is important to us as we want to provide the best possible service to our customers.
Scheme applications and queues
We track and report on the number of applications we receive and process in a month, as well as the overall length of the queue for the GB Domestic and Non-Domestic RHI, Feed-In-Tariffs, Renewables Obligation, Energy Company Obligation and Warm Home Discount schemes. This helps to show the volume of applications that we are dealing with. It also shows things such as where there have been spikes in applications, which may impact how quickly we are able to process them.