Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many renewable obligation certificates have been issued to date to accredited Scottish hydro stations built before 2000; and of those, how many were issued to hydro stations that, before 2000, had a generating capacity calculated in excess of 20MWs, but were subsequently calculated as having a net capacity of less than 20MWs.

The Department does not hold this information. However, between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2017, a total of 21.97 million Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) were issued to accredited Scottish hydro stations that commissioned before 2000.^[1]

Hydro stations with a declared net capacity of above 20MW which first commissioned on or before 1 April 2002 are not eligible for ROCs.

[1] Data is not held on build dates. The figure for total ROCs issued is based on those issued and not subsequently revoked for stations that commissioned up to the end of 1999. The commissioning data is taken from Ofgem’s RO accredited stations report at: https://www.renewablesandchp.ofgem.gov.uk/Public/ReportViewer.aspx?ReportPath=/Renewables/Accreditation/AccreditedStationsExternalPublic&ReportVisibility=1&ReportCategory=1

The number of ROCs issued to these stations from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006 comes from Ofgem’s spreadsheets at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/rocs-purged-roc-register . Data from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2017 comes from Ofgem’s certificates report at: https://www.renewablesandchp.ofgem.gov.uk/Public/ReportViewer.aspx?ReportPath=/DatawarehouseReports/CertificatesExternalPublicDataWarehouse&ReportVisibility=1&ReportCategory=2

Both data sources were accessed on 23 June 2017. No information is available on previous capacity before the stations accredited under the RO.