ScottishPower said that it will also contribute to the new Community Energy Saving Program, which is similar to the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) obligation. This represents an another increase of 12.5% to the CERT program which will be split between the other five energy suppliers and the UK’s independent electricity generators, representing a separate rise for the industry of GBP350 million.
Together with the other measures announced by the government, this amounts to an additional contribution of GBP910 million from the energy industry through until 2011 on increasing the energy efficiency of UK homes, said ScottishPower.
Even before the current increase, ScottishPower was already committed to spend GBP270 million under CERT by 2011. ScottishPower also recently announced separate plans to spend GBP40 million on measures to protect its vulnerable customers over the next three years.
Nick Horler, CEO of ScottishPower, said: After exhaustive and unprecedented discussions with the government, ScottishPower has agreed to meet the considerable financial and logistical challenge outlined. The combined impact of these two increases to the CERT on top of our already significant commitments amounts to spend on energy efficiency that totals almost GBP4 billion over three years.
