Organisations that contract for energy supplies that are consumed by third parties will not usually be responsible for those supplies under the CRC. These energy supplies are deemed to be Unconsumed Supplies in relation to the organisation that procures them. Organisations can exclude these supplies from their energy supplies when working out:

An exception to this exclusion is where landlords procure energy supplies on behalf of their tenants.

For more information about how the exclusion for Unconsumed Supplies works, see Practice note, CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme: exclusions and exemptions.

When a company contracts for an electricity supply, the electricity supplier will link that company's details to the meter at the relevant premises. This is an ordinary commercial process unconnected with the CRC; the organisation in question is contracting for a supply, it is their name on the bill and, therefore, they are the organisation linked to the relevant meters.

Last year, the EA (the lead Administrator for the CRC) sent letters (known as "HHM letters") to all electricity billing addresses across the UK (that is, to organisations that the major electricity suppliers had listed as responsible for Settled HHMs) in order to give organisations that might be affected by the CRC a "heads up" that they might be covered by the scheme. Apart from where electricity supplies are procured by an organisation for a third party, the organisation that is listed against a Settled HHM by an electricity supplier will usually be the one responsible for the associated electricity supply under the CRC. However, receipt of an HHM letter is not proof that an organisation must register for the CRC. It is merely an indication that they may be affected by the scheme and that they will need to look at their electricity supplies to see if they meet the Qualification Criteria.

The short answer to your question as to whether you need to inform the Administrator about the HHMs that your supplier has listed as yours but where you are not responsible for the associated electricity supplies under the CRC, is yes. The process for doing this is called an Information Disclosure.

If an organisation has at least one Settled HHM, it will need to make an Information Disclosure or register for the CRC. If, having excluded any Unconsumed Supplies, it had less than 6,000 MWh of Qualifying Electricity during the Qualification Year (which is 2008 for the Introductory Phase), it will need to make an Information Disclosure. If the organisation's Qualifying Electricity supplies in 2008 were over 6,000 MWh then it will need to register as a Participant. As part of both the Information Disclosure and the registration processes, an organisation will have to provide a list of Settled HHMs that it is responsible for.

Section 1 in Schedule 5 to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order 2010 (SI 2010/768) (the CRC Order) specifies what information needs to be provided at registration. It only requires a list of HHMs that measured the supply of Qualifying Electricity. The definition of Qualifying Electricity in article 3 of the CRC Order includes electricity supplied in accordance with sections 1-5 in Schedule 1. We think this means the CRC Order only requires you to provide a list of meters that relate to energy supplies that you are responsible for (that is, energy supplies that exclude Unconsumed Supplies).

However, the EA guidance on making an Information Disclosure (Environment Agency website: CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme) says on page 19 that the figure for HHM electricity data that you need to supply for an Information Disclosure is the total of your electricity through HHMs and that this "must include your excluded supplies". The guidance also says that you must then specify whether you are making an Information Disclosure because the result of deducting your excluded supplies is to take your electricity supplies below 6,000 MWh.

We think that this means that the EA expects organisations such as facilities management companies, to make an Information Disclosure using information about the Settled HHMs and electricity supplies that it procures for its customers. The Information Disclosure is, therefore, the process by which organisations let the EA know that, although their supplier has associated them with a Settled HHM for the purposes of billing, they are not responsible for those supplies under the CRC.

Although it is the customers of a facilities management company that are responsible for electricity supplies that are procured by the facilities management company on their behalf, not all those customers will need to register for the CRC (for example, the customer may not meet the 6,000 MWh threshold). Therefore, if one of your customers did not register for the CRC, this does not automatically mean that the EA will expect you to have registered and fine you if you have not done so.