The UK government plans to bar future Contract for Difference (CfD) winners from delaying their contract start dates in order to take advantage of high merchant power prices.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published a consultation on changing CfD terms and conditions ahead of Auction Round 5 to ensure that developers do not delay initiating their 15-year strike prices “to optimise electricity generation revenue during the target commissioning window”.
BEIS said that it will allow flexibility on start dates where there are “genuine construction hold-ups or other unforeseen delays”.
The government is meanwhile consulting on several other amendments, which include replacing the monthly requirement of an expected start date and installed capacity with a “provision of estimates at specific milestones”.
It is also consulting on removing a requirement for generators to provide expected generation output data as a CfD operational condition, as well as reflecting that generators now have to file supply chain plans for floating wind farms under 300MW and the end to pay Balancing Services Use of System charges from April 2023.
The consultation runs until 5 February with the findings to be implemented in time for the launch of the CfD round in March.