Government backs CfD reforms to support more renewables

The Government is pressing ahead with reforms to the Contracts for Difference scheme aimed at maximising new renewable capacity.

In its response to a consultation on changes, it said it was backing changes which will see fixed monetary budgets replaced with capacity ambitions for the next round of the scheme.

A contract budget notice will be published later in the allocation round process, rather than the current requirement for 10 days before the application window opens.

The UK energy secretary will also be able to see anonymised price-related bid information in sealed bids and then set the auction budget to more effectively balance capacity procured and consumer bill costs.

To meet targets under the Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, at least 12GW will need to be secured in the next two to three allocation rounds - AR7, AR8 and, depending on the speed at which projects deploy, AR9.