Following a sustained period of lobbying by the British Hydropower Association (BHA), BEIS have published their proposals for hydropower installations with initial accreditation deadlines falling on or after 1 October 2020, to mitigate COVID-19 commissioning delays.
BEIS propose to give hydropower projects whose current validity periods end after 30 September a 12-month extension and are also seeking views on whether the deadlines for projects in scope of the previous emergency statutory instrument (i.e. with initial validity periods ending 1 March – 30 September) need to be extended further.
The Chief Executive Officer of the BHA, Simon Hamlyn said:
“This is excellent news for the industry and at least 70 member’s schemes, which total 39MW with an associated investment value of £168M.
We are very pleased that BEIS have listened carefully to our request for this proposed 12-month extension and those affected members should now be able to continue with their schemes with confidence in the knowledge they will benefit from the additional 12 months.”
The consultation paper can be viewed in full here –Â the deadline for responses is 17 July.
