The series of catastrophic mistakes made in the design of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) have been widely reported since the NI Audit Office published the first report into the scheme in July 2016. Since then, revelations continue to emerge through the ongoing public inquiry.However, aside from the design, rollout and ultimate closure of RHI in February 2016, officials in the Department for the Economy (DfE) are still making fundamental errors in their handling of RHI as they attempt to reduce scheme overspend.
The series of catastrophic mistakes made in the design of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) have been widely reported since the NI Audit Office published the first report into the scheme in July 2016. Since then, revelations continue to emerge through the ongoing public inquiry.
However, aside from the design, rollout and ultimate closure of RHI in February 2016, officials in the Department for the Economy (DfE) are still making fundamental errors in their handling of RHI as they attempt to reduce scheme overspend.
A lack of communication with RHI claimants surrounding both the ongoing inspections of accredited boilers and the introduction, and subsequent extension, of retrospective cuts to RHI tariffs, has led to a serious mistrust between scheme participants and DfE officials.
From 2012 until late 2015, farmers were encouraged by civil servants, politicians and industry to install biomass boilers and were given guarantees that RHI tariffs would be fixed for 20 years.
After reduced tariffs were retrospectively introduced last April, RHI participants are now running boilers at a loss, while still paying off installation costs.
Boiler owners feel that they are paying for the mistakes of the scheme’s designers, as some onlookers rightly question the reliability of guarantees with any Government-funded scheme.
Rectify mistakes
DfE still has an opportunity to rectify these latest mistakes by providing more guidance on the audit process and by involving boiler owners in the upcoming consultation on longer-term RHI tariffs after March 2019. A solution is needed that limits scheme overspend, but allows boiler owners to pay off installation costs and cover boiler running costs. Between the closure of RHI in February 2016 and the Northern Ireland Renewable Obligations (NIRO) for electricity generation in April 2017, there is no incentive for the development of small-scale renewable installations. The small-scale renewable sector in NI cannot drift towards extinction due to the design failings of one botched scheme.
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