CERT and CESP Legislation for Energy Efficiency Products

The UK’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions has never been stronger with the existing targets within the domestic sector being a 80% reduction against 1990 levels by 2050.

The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) are the two key pieces of legislation aimed at stimulating demand for energy efficiency products in the domestic sector such as cavity wall, loft insulation and external wall insulation. CERT and CESP are scheduled to run until December 2012 at which point they will be replaced with the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation.
Green Deal

The ‘Green Deal’ is governments new plan to make energy efficiency more affordable for homeowners and businesses alike. Set to be introduced in the autumn of 2012 government are establishing a framework to offer consumers energy efficiency improvements to their homes, community spaces and businesses at no up front cost and recoup payments through a charge in installments on their energy bill. This approach will aim to combat one of the major barriers to take up of energy efficiency measures which is the up front investment required particularly when considering some of the more expensive measures such as external wall insulation. One of the fundamental principals of green deal is ‘The Golden Rule’ which stipulates that any savings made on the energy bill must be greater than the subsequent repayment charge.

Energy Company Obligation

One key elements of the existing CERT & CESP programmes is that they provide additional support to certain vulnerable customer groups likely to be living in Fuel Poverty. The Energy Company Obligation will replace this aspect to ensure these customer groups are still at the forefront of governments plans beyond 2012. The Energy Company Obligation will also provide additional subsidy to ensure some measures which may fall outside the green deal ‘golden rule’ are financially viable under the green deal proposals.

Although the development of Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation are still in the early stages it is clear that the energy efficiency industry will see significant changes over the coming years. InstaGroup are at the forefront of these discussions and as an industry leader are involved in shaping future this future legislation. By working with the Snug Network you can be assured that our products and propositions will evolve in line with new legislation making us an excellent long terms partner choice.