Renewables Obligation Certificates presented and Redistribution of Buy-Out Fund 2023-24

Reports, plans and updates
Publication date
Scheme name
RO

Total obligation: 114,508,708 Renewables Obligation Certificates

The Renewables Obligation (RO) requires licensed electricity suppliers to source a proportion of the electricity they supply to UK customers from renewable sources. We set suppliers’ obligations as a number of Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

The obligation levels for 2023-24, announced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on the 30 September 2022, are:

 

0.469 Renewables Obligation Certificates per MWh of electricity supplied to customers in England, Wales and Scotland.

0.184 Renewables Obligation Certificates per MWh of electricity supplied to customers in Northern Ireland.

Multiplying these obligation levels by the total electricity supplied (in MWh) to UK customers during this obligation period (1 April 2023– 31 March 2024) and rounding to the nearest whole number, the total obligation for 2023-24 is 114,508,708 Renewables Obligation Certificates.

 

Split out for each obligation jurisdiction this is:

 

102,910,583 Renewables Obligation Certificates in England & Wales

10,268,199 Renewables Obligation Certificates in Scotland

1,329,926 Renewables Obligation Certificates in Northern Ireland.

Suppliers were able to meet their obligations for 2023-24 by 1 September 2024 by:

 

Presenting Renewables Obligation Certificates to us

Making a buy-out payment of £59.01 per Renewables Obligation Certificate (these must be made by 31 August)

Using a combination of Renewables Obligation Certificates and a buy-out payment

Any suppliers who did not meet their obligations in full by 1 September were required to make a late payment by 31 October

We have recently redistributed the Renewables Obligation buy-out fund for 2023-24. Details of the obligations and total payments for each Renewables Obligation scheme are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Obligation Total Obligation (ROCs) ROCs presented by suppliers Percentage of obligation met by ROCs Buy-out payments made by suppliers (rounded to nearest pound) Buy-out redistributed
England & Wales (RO) 102,910,583 94,331,097 91.66% £492,240,435 £483,820,471
Scotland (ROS) 10,268,199 8,219,560 80.05% £120,709,676 £118,644,887
Northern Ireland (NIRO) 1,329,926 1,321,080 99.33% £522,002 £513,067
Total 114,508,708 103,871,737 90.71% £613,472,114 £602,978,425

 

Suppliers that presented ROCs towards their obligations received buy-out fund recycle payments on 28 October 2024. The amounts to be redistributed are shown in the far-right column in Table 1. We reached these values by withdrawing our and Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation’s (UR) administration costs and rounding down the redistribution amounts to the nearest whole pound. Suppliers received approximately £5.81 for each ROC they presented. The proportion of the total ROCs each supplier presented, and therefore the share of buy-out payments they received, is shown in Table 2 (rounded to 2 decimal places).

Table 2

Licensee Name % Proportion of ROCs presented
3T POWER LIMITED <0.01%
Axpo UK Limited 0.31%
BGI Trading Limited  0.02%
British Gas Trading Limited 13.60%
Brook Green Trading Limited  1.08%
Bryt Energy Limited 1.38%
Budget Energy Limited 0.05%
Business Power and Gas Limited <0.01%
Conrad Energy (Trading) Limited 0.02%
Corona Energy Retail 4 Limited 0.28%
Crown Gas and Power 2 Limited <0.01%
DODO ENERGY LTD <0.01%
Drax Energy Solutions Limited 6.08%
E (Gas and Electricity) Ltd 0.21%
E E Solutions Limited 0.05%
E.ON Energy Solutions Limited <0.01%
E.ON Next Supply Limited  8.23%
E.ON UK Plc 0.01%
Ecotricity Limited 0.19%
EDF Energy Customers Limited 19.77%
Electric Ireland 0.32%
Electricity Plus Supply Limited 1.31%
Eneco Energy Trade BV 0.29%
Energia Customer Solutions NI Limited 0.10%
ENGIE Power Limited 3.50%
EPG Energy Limited <0.01%
F & S Energy Limited <0.01%
Foxglove Energy Supply Limited 0.18%
Good Energy Limited 0.21%
Green Energy (UK) Limited 0.05%
LCC Power Limited (trading as Go Power) 0.12%
Limejump Energy Limited <0.01%
Npower Commercial Gas Limited 8.18%
Octopus Energy 3.45%
Octopus Energy Operations 2 0.20%
Octopus Energy Operations Limited 2.21%
Opus Energy (Corporate) Limited 0.19%
Opus Energy Limited 0.57%
Ovo Energy 3.80%
P3P Energy Supply Limited <0.01%
Power NI Energy Limited 0.39%
Pozitive Energy Limited 1.00%
Project Plug Limited (trading as Click Energy) 0.03%
Rebel Energy Limited 0.02%
Scottish Power Energy Retail Limited 5.91%
SEFE Energy Limited 0.24%
Shell Energy UK Limited 1.16%
SmartestEnergy Business Limited  0.43%
SmartestEnergy Limited 3.01%
SO Energy Trading Limited 0.10%
Square1 Energy Limited <0.01%
SSE Airtricity Energy Supply Limited 0.24%
SSE Energy Supply Limited 4.62%
Switch Business Gas and Power Limited <0.01%
Tomato Energy Limited 0.02%
TotalEnergies Gas & Power Limited 6.14%
Tru Energy Limited 0.02%
UK Power Reserve Limited <0.01%
Utilita Energy Limited <0.01%
Valda Energy Limited 0.12%
Vattenfall Energy Trading GmbH  <0.01%
Wilton Energy Limited 0.02%
Yu Energy Retail Limited 0.54%

 

There was a combined shortfall of £14,215,545.14 in the buy-out funds, this was due to five suppliers not meeting their total obligations by the 1 September deadline. These suppliers consequently owed late payments.

The breakdown of the shortfall by jurisdiction was:

  • England & Wales - £14,035,033.55
  • Scotland - £180,511.59
  • Northern Ireland - £0.00

 

The shortfalls in the buy-out funds were below the respective mutualisation thresholds of £72,200,000 for England and Wales and £7,200,000 for Scotland (as published by Ofgem on 16 February 2023, as such mutualisation has not been triggered for the 2023-24 Compliance year.

 

The deadline for suppliers to make late payments is 31 October 2024 and we will redistribute them before 1 January 2025. This will include interest paid by the suppliers at an annualised rate of 10.00% (5% + Bank of England base rate as of 1 September 2024). When we redistribute the late payments, we will also confirm the final recycle value, which will include an extra amount on top of the £5.81per ROC.

 

For more information, contact: RECompliance@ofgem.gov.uk