Department of Energy
& Climate Change
4th Floor Area A
3-8 Whitehall Place
London SW1A 2AW
1 March 2010
Dear Mr Truelove
Thank you for your letter dated 3 February 2010 which you sent to the DECC Permanent Secretary, Moira Wallace. She has asked me to respond on her behalf. In your letter you raised the issue of renewable electricity microgeneration installations installed prior to 15 July 2009 and their ineligibility for the full feed-in tariffs rate for new installations set out in the Government’s response to the summer 2009 feed-in tariffs consultation.
You expressed your view that this was not fair and discriminatory to yourself and other investors who took decisions prior to the launch of the Government’s consultation on 15 July 2009. I am sorry that you feel this way. The consultation response explains in paragraph 46 that allowing all existing installations access to FITs increase the costs of the scheme without encouraging additional generation, which is the primary objective of our policy. We do not therefore think that this would represent value for money and cannot therefore justify the cost to consumers that providing additional compensation to existing microgeneration installations would incur. The installations already exist and are either operating without support or with RO support, which we will continue to allow them to receive through the RO equivalent generation tariff. We are therefore providing a policy whereby Government support that was available at the time when investment decisions were taken is maintained. I recognise that this may not be the answer that you will have wanted and am sorry that you will not be able to benefit from the scheme.
Yours sincerely,
John Moriarty
MICROGENERATORS.INFO