Beama has welcomed the Heat Policy speech delivered today by Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the minister for business, energy and industrial strategy, but with some words of caution and a message for BEIS officials to focus on practical actions that can stimulate the take up of low carbon and energy efficiency measures.
Speaking straight after the speech, Beama deputy CEO Kelly Butler said “Obviously we are very pleased that the government has finally issued its response to the Renewable Heat Incentive consultation which will enable us to begin promoting the heat pump technology that the Minister states in her speech is a vital part of our decarbonised heat and flexible energy system future.
According to BEIS officials but not mentioned in the speech is the fact around 90% of current RHI recipients using air source heat pumps would be better off with the new RHI structure, with a more modest 60% better off with ground source heat pumps. This is good news. However, there are some practical actions missing in both the RHI response and the concurrently announced Heat in Buildings Consultation:
The lack of rules of the Assignment of Rights package is disappointing and officials must commit to delivery dates for this important part of the policy suite; certainly before the start of the next heating season.
The government has failed to acknowledge the growing message from industry that the Microgeneration Certification Scheme needs greater competition and a review to ensure it is delivering value to those who pay for it, i.e. manufacturers, installers and, inevitably although indirectly, customers.
Peer reviewed evidence to ensure mandatory inclusion of TRVs in building regulations has yet to be acted upon by BEIS and this is a gaping omission in the Heat in Buildings Consultation which claims to promote greater control. We are calling on BEIS to listen to the overwhelming supporting evidence to elevate the role of TRVs in domestic heating control minimum standards.
The market model for low carbon heat deployment is inappropriate if dealt with on a national scale and our response to the currently live Energy Market Design call for evidence will be promoting a regional heat zone model which will bring together partnerships between the heating supply chain, network operators, aggregators and energy retailers.
Beama hopes both the minister and her officials now work with industry experts such as Beama as soon as possible to tackle the practical heat market issues. Theory and policy is one thing… market development planning and delivery is quite another.