Manufacturing and industrial businesses in the UK that own or operate electricity generation like solar, wind and combined heat and power (CHP) have four weeks – until Tuesday 10 May 2022 – to apply for funding that will help them update their electricity generation in line with mandatory regulations.
A 2018 survey by The Economist found that 36.5% of manufacturing businesses are generating their own electricity. Many of these businesses will be impacted by the changes and so it is important for them to check their generation equipment to find out if it is compliant, or if they must make a change.
The new regulations apply to electricity generators installed before February 2018 and between 11 kW and 50 MW. Generator owners whose equipment is within this scope must update the Loss of Mains protection settings on the inverters, converters or relays that connect electricity generation to the UK energy network – and all generators in scope must be compliant by 01 September 2022.
Funding to help businesses cover the cost of the upgrades is available through the Accelerated Loss of Mains Change Programme (ALoMCP), a scheme operated by National Grid ESO and the GB network operators. Cheng Chen, the senior manager for the ALoMCP at National Grid ESO, says: “Compliance with Loss of Mains requirements is not optional and so electricity generator owners should take advantage of the funding that is available now to help them make the upgrades.” Once funding applications close on 10 May, generator owning businesses will still need to meet the compliance requirements but will have to pay for the updates themselves, on pain of enforcement action.
