Wrong assumptions used in Northern Ireland's RHI design

The agriculture industry was not considered in planning documents that were used to design the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), a court in Belfast has been told.

In the first day of the judicial review challenging cuts to RHI tariffs, the barrister representing RHI claimants said that the poultry sector was not considered in model calculations used to set tariff rates before the scheme launch in 2012.

“From the start, the assumptions in which so many calculations and figures are based on are fundamentally wrong,” Gerald Simpson, QC told the court.

An example used was load factor, which is the figure describing what percentage of the time biomass boilers operate in businesses.

In planning documents this was set at 17%, however Simpson said that the load factor is much higher on poultry farms and there was no evidence of the source of the 17% figure or that department officials questioned it.

The court heard that calculations for biomass boiler investment were based on switching from oil heating, whilst most poultry farmers traditionally heated sheds with liquefied petroleum gas.

“Agriculture never features in any of the calculations,” Simpson said.

He argued that RHI claimants who joined the scheme before November 2015 at fixed tariff rates for 20 years should not have been subject to cost cutting reductions through regulations approved in April 2017.

“If it were a private organisation making that representation in court, your Lordship would not give them the time of day as it would be a breach of contract,” Simpson told Mr Justice Colton.

Barristers for the Department for the Economy are expected to give representations later in the week and the case is scheduled to run until Friday.

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