Citation and commencement

1. This Order may be cited as the Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) Order 2015 and comes into force on 1st April 2015.

Amendment to the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012

2. —(1) This Order amends the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012( 2 )(“the 2012 Order”).

(2) A reference in this Order to a numbered article or Schedule is to the article or Schedule so numbered in the 2012 Order.

Article 2

3. In article 2 (interpretation)—

(a) in paragraph (1), after “community energy installation”, insert—

“ “community organisation” has the meaning given in article 11; ” ; and

(b) for paragraph (3), substitute—

“ (3) In this Order—

“last resort supply direction” has the meaning given to it in the standard conditions of electricity supply licences; and

“stand-alone solar photovoltaic” has the meaning given to it in Annex 3 to Schedule A to Standard Licence Condition 33 of the standard conditions of electricity supply licences. ” .

Article 9

4.Article 9 (preliminary accreditation) is amended as follows—

(a) after paragraph (iv), in paragraph (3)(a), insert—

“ (v) where the installation will be a solar photovoltaic installation with a total installed capacity of 250kW or more, whether or not the installation will be stand-alone solar photovoltaic;

(vi) whether or not the installation will be owned by a community organisation; ” ;

(b) in paragraph (4)(c)(ii), omit “and”;

(c) at the end of sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (4), omit the full stop and insert “; and”;

(d) after sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (4) insert—

“ (e) if the application for preliminary accreditation specifies that the installation will be owned by a community organisation, the installation will be so owned. ” ;

(e) at the beginning of paragraph (8), insert “Subject to paragraph (8A),”; and

(f) after paragraph (8), insert—

“ (8A) Where the installation will be owned by a community organisation, preliminary accreditation shall be valid—

(a) for solar photovoltaic installations, for 12 months;

(b) for wind and anaerobic digestion installations, for 18 months; and

(c) for hydro generating stations, for 30 months,

beginning with the date on which the application for preliminary accreditation was received by the Authority. ” .

Article 10

5. In paragraph (4) of article 10 (effect of preliminary accreditation)—

(a) at the end of sub-paragraph (d), omit “or”; and

(b) after sub-paragraph (e) insert—

“ (f) the application for preliminary accreditation specified that the installation—

(i) would not be stand-alone solar photovoltaic and it is stand-alone solar photovoltaic; or

(ii) would be stand-alone solar photovoltaic and it is not stand-alone solar photovoltaic;

(g) the application for preliminary accreditation specified that the installation would be owned by a community organisation and the Authority is not satisfied that it is owned by a community organisation. ” .

Article 11

6. In paragraph (6) of article 11 (pre-registration of community energy installations)—

(a) before the definition of “community benefit or co-operative society”, insert—

“ “charity” means a charity—

(b) for the definition of “community benefit or cooperative society”, substitute—

“ “community benefit or co-operative society” means a society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 ( 5 ) as a community benefit society or as a co-operative society; ” ;

(c) for the definition of “community organisation”, substitute—

“ “community organisation” means—

Article 15

7. In article 15 (site of accredited FIT installations)—

(a) after paragraph (4)(c), insert—

“ (d) at least one of A or B is owned, or is to be owned, by a community organisation and the conditions in paragraph (7) are met. ” ; and

(b) after paragraph (6) insert—

“ (7) The conditions referred to in paragraph (4)(d) are that—

(a) only A and B share, or are to share, the single grid connection referred to in paragraph (3)(a); and

(b) for both A and B—

(i) the Tariff Dates; or

(ii) the Eligibility Dates,

are on or after 1st April 2015. ” .

Schedule 2

8. In paragraph 5 of Schedule 2 (publication of FIT deployment data), omit the definition of “stand-alone solar photovoltaic installation”.