Allowance - An allowance is purchased from the Government and represents the right to emit one tCO2 by a participant. These can also be bought and sold by traders.
Annual report - The report that each participant must provide via the online registry system by the last working day in July each year, detailing their emissions for the previous financial year.
Annual reporting year - In the first phase of the CRC, an annual reporting year applies to every year of the phase. For second and subsequent phases of the scheme, it applies to the second year and all subsequent years of a particular phase only.
Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meter - Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters have been developed for gas and electricity that is not subject to (Half Hourly Markets) HHMs so that consumers can access data on supplies.
Capped phase - A capped phase is a phase in the CRC which is subject to a limit on the total number of allowances made available to participants each year. The introductory phase is not a capped phase but all subsequent phases will be capped phases.
The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) - A mandatory emissions trading scheme for non energy-intensive organisations in the public and private sector.
Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) - Climate Change Agreements relate to the Climate Change Levy (CCL), which was put in place to encourage users to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) - A technology where electricity is generated at or near the place where it is used, with the heat produced being used for space heating, water heating or industrial steam loads. This potentially leads to much higher efficiency than conventional generation.
Compliance account - Each participant will have a compliance account through which functions such as registration, reporting and allowance purchasing and trading will be carried out via the registry.
Compliance year - Each phase is made up of a number of compliance years. Each compliance year runs over the same period as a financial year. A participant must meet certain requirements for each compliance year, such as reporting or surrendering allowances.
Core Sources - Core sources are those that you are obliged to include in the CRC if they are not covered by a CCA or the EU ETS. They include:
Core electricity supplies:
- all settled HHMs
- all non-settled HHMs
- all non-domestic meters, and
- all dynamic supply
Core gas supplies:
- all daily meters
- all HHMs, and
- all large gas point meters
Designated Change - Large scale organisational change featuring the sale of participants or Significant Group Undertakings. Government will transfer the responsibility for participating in the scheme to the purchasing organisation.
Dynamic Supply - Dynamic supply is now characterised by the existence of (i) a set of equipment fixed to land that performs a common function (for example, street lighting), (ii) one element of the set of equipment is metered (for example a lamp post) and (iii) the existing meter point is used as a benchmark to determine the overall supply to the entire set of equipment in a given period.
Accreditation Scheme - An accreditation formerly offered by the Carbon Trust for organisations that make energy supply savings through improved management and energy efficiency measures. This scheme has now been replaced by the Carbon Trust Standard.
EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) - The EU ETS is a greenhouse gas emissions trading system covering the energy intensive sectors of the EU Member States. Sectors covered by the system include: power generation, cement, glass, ceramics, steel, aluminium, and pulp and paper, which are termed ‘trading sectors’.
Evidence pack - Participants in the CRC must keep a record of their organisation’s energy supplies and other documents supporting the information given to the Administrators part of the CRC compliance with the need for adequate records.
Footprint year - The footprint year is the first year of each phase during which participants must monitor energy supply across their organisation and establish the sources of energy supply to be included in CRC for the forthcoming phase.
Footprint report - The footprint report will contain information about organisational energy supplies and the sources to be included in the scheme for that phase.
Grid average emissions - Grid average is the average emissions per unit of all electricity supplied by the grid.
Half hourly light meter - Alternative to traditional half hourly settled meters, as they are able to provide half hourly data at a lower cost.
Half hourly market - This is the half hourly electricity market used by suppliers and generators to calculate the balance or imbalance, in what is generated and supplied, using electricity supplies information that is recorded half hourly.
Highest parent organisation - The highest parent is the body with ultimate control over an organisational group.
Information disclosure - Organisations that have a settled half hourly meter but do not meet the qualification threshold for participation in CRC will have to disclose information on the HHMs they have and their electricity supplies, to the administrator via the online registry.
Introductory phase - The introductory phase is the first phase of the CRC scheme. It begins in April 2010 and lasts for three years.
Large point gas meter - A large gas point meter is a meter which during a footprint year of a phase measured greater than 73,200 kWh of gas supplied.
League table - A published table detailing the relative performance of all participants in CRC against the three weighted metrics:absolute metric, early action metric and growth metric.
Mandatory Half Hourly Meter (HHM) - Mandatory Half Hourly Meters (HHM) supply electricity settled on the half hourly market and are required in situations where the average peak electricity demand over the three months of highest supplies received exceeds 100kW over the previous 12 months. Note; not all half hourly meters trading on the half hourly market are classed as mandatory.
Megawatt hour (MWh) - A unit of energy equal to 1 million watt hours or 1 million joules per second supplied for a period of one hour.
Non-domestic meter - A non-domestic meter means a meter which is designed to measure supplies to non-domestic premises and is capable of measuring maximum electricity demand.
Participant - An organisation that qualifies or is otherwise required to participate, and must register under CRC.
Primary member - The organisation within an organisational group nominated to act as the participant in CRC on behalf of all parts of that group and who is taken as representing that group in its dealings with the Administrators.
Pseudo Half Hourly Metering - A technique for calculating half hourly electricity supplies where the supply is unmetered.
Qualification period - The period during which electricity supplied through all half hourly meters must be monitored to determine whether your organisation qualifies to participate in the forthcoming phase of CRC.
Registration period - This is the period during which organisations that qualify for the scheme must register with the scheme administrator via the online CRC registry.
Registry - CRC will be administered online via a purpose-built website known as the CRC registry. Participants will register, report, buy and sell allowances and communicate with the administrator via this online system.
Relevant emissions - Refers to all an organisation’s energy supply emissions, minus those from energy used for excluded activities (transport, domestic accommodation and onward supply of fuel).
Renewables Obligation (RO) - The RO is the main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the UK.
Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) - A Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) is issued to an accredited generator for eligible renewable electricity generated within the UK and supplied to customers within the UK by a licensed electricity supplier.
Residual Supplies - Residual supplies are any energy supply other than CRC core supplies.
Revenue recycling - All revenue raised from the sale of allowances every April is returned to participants in the form of a recycling payment to each participant.
Safety valve - The safety valve is a mechanism by which participants can buy additional allowances from the administrator throughout the year.
Secondary market - The secondary market refers to any trade in allowances that takes place between participants or with third parties, i.e. all trading other than the Government’s sale/auction of allowances.
Significant Group Undertaking (SGU) - Any individual subsidiary or grouping of subsidiaries within an organisation which would meet the qualification criteria for participation in CRC in its own right, were it not part of a larger organisation.
Total footprint emissions - An organisation’s total emissions from energy supplies after subtracting those from excluded activities and those exempt through CCAs.
Voluntary Half Hourly meter - Voluntary Half Hourly meters are the same type of meters as the mandatory 100 kW HHMs, however as the title implies, they are installed on a voluntary basis at sites below the 100kW threshold.