Biomass Suppliers List Contract

Description

The Biomass Suppliers List (BSL) provides RHI participants with a simple way to demonstrate that the woody biomass they purchase complies with RHI sustainability standards. The BSL is a list of fuels approved by the BSL administrator as meeting the requirements of the RHI Regulations. It includes an online, public-facing list of approved fuels that are available to be purchased by RHI participants. The List also includes a separate category of self-suppliers who source their own fuel for their own use and who are exempt from the Land use Criteria. The current contract has been extended till August 2016, to support the Authority on reforming the Biomass Supplier List. DECC’s long term vision has always been to relinquish its responsibility for funding the List and to develop a self-sustaining model administered by the industry, to remove the need for Government funding. Therefore, we have engaged with industry to assess whether the List could be transferred into the market as a self-funding service and to inform our decision making for the future arrangements of the BSL. In order to achieve this, DECC is undertaking a tendering exercise to test market appetite for the administration of the BSL and to determine whether a self-funding service is a feasible option and delivers value for money. Should the tender exercise prove successful we anticipate that the BSL will be handed over from the existing contractor to the successful contractor in August 16. DECC will fund the mobilisation and transition costs for the List till December 2016 and to help incentivise industry take up of the List. The BSL will be expected be fully operational as a self-funding List in January 2017 where suppliers on the List and those wishing to make new applications will be charged a fee. Government will still retain a level of control over the List as it is a mandatory requirement for domestic RHI participants to buy sustainable woodfuel from the BSL, as per RHI regulations. However, DECC will introduce an independent industry advisory panel to provide strategic oversight of the List and will incrementally increase its responsibility for the List over the life of the BSL.