CRC refund guide published by Decc

The energy department has outlined how participants in the carbon reduction commitment (CRC) scheme can apply for a refund if they mistakenly surrender credits

Detials are in a six-page guide where Decc sets out the circumstances in which it will consider issuing a refund, what organisations need to do to make a claim and how long it should take to receive a repayment.

Under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order 2013, which came into force on 15 May, organisations subject to the CRC can request a refund from Decc for any extra allowances that they have surrendered as a result of reporting errors.

The guide states that refunds will be considered where a participant has surrendered CRC allowances in line with its reported emissions and subsequently discovered an error, or where an organisation has mistakenly registered to participate in the scheme and surrendered allowances.

It also confirms that repayments will only be available for credits that were bought from the government, and not those purchase on the secondary market.

The document includes extra guidance for those firms which have kept allowances purchased from the government and the secondary market in a single account, and for those which had problems ordering and surrendering credits for the 2011/12 reporting year as a result of glitches with digital certificates.

The guidance and the CRC repayment request form are available to download from Decc’s website.