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Carbon Management

Carbon management is closely linked with energy efficiency with the now very familar term 'Carbon Footprint' being the public face of the industry. At Air Technology we have a number of consultants that are accredited under the Carbon Trust and have completed a number of carbon footprinting exercises around the country, a brief case can be found below.

However, Carbon Management isn't all about Carbon Footprinting and large capital costs, it also covers optimisation of existing systems such as heating, lighting, motors etc... We have a wealth of experience in our team covering all aspects of site energy usage, we can offer very low cost surveys to perform a walkaround survey focusing on the major savings and low cost options as well as longer more indepth studies including economic modelling and future strategy.

Whilst many of the recommendations made in Carbon Footprinting surveys are relatively low cost with short paybacks, some of them require very significant captal expenditure, these include scope for CHP and Wind Generation. In order to make these attractive we come to ROCs. Two specific Government regulatory measures will provide additional sources of revenue to CHP projects depending on technology configuration and fuel type used. These are Climate Change Levy Exemption Certificates (LECs) and Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

The Renewables Obligation (RO) has been part of the UK electricity market since 1 April 2002. The RO places an obligation on electricity suppliers in England and Wales to source a percentage of their total supply to all customers from renewables. Each obligation compliance period runs from 1 April to 31 March of the following year. The obligation creates a financial incentive for new renewable energy projects. Developers earn Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) for each MWh of electricity generated from renewable sources. The value of ROCs is subject to change each year and the total value is the product of the agreed ROC ‘Buyout’ price and Recycling Payment which is calculated against any CP shortfall. The average market price for ROCs in January 2008 was £49.95/MWh. The RO is regulated and administered by The Office for Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem).

In May 2007 the Dti published a consultation document Renewable Energy-Reform of the Renewable Obligation which had the key objectives of supporting renewables target delivery of 20% of UK generation mix by 2020 and to enable a financial incentive to maintain existing and future investment in technologies. Key to the proposed renewable obligation reform is the introduction of renewable technology banding into 4 areas with a sliding scale of ROC allocation against technology bands. Table 5 below summarises technology banding and proposed ROC allocation. The RO Reform has been identified as potentially coming into being from April 2009 at the earliest.

The UK vehicle of carbon reduction is the Carbon Trust to which Air Technology hold CMEE accreditiation as well as individual accreditation for most of our staff.

Air Technology are part of the ManagingCarbon consortium a multidisciplinary group with the aim to reduce the energy spend in industry.