Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Renewables Obligation definition

What does Renewables Obligation mean? In practice, the Renewables Obligation is the UK scheme under which licensed electricity suppliers must source a proportion of their supply from renewable generation, evidenced by Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs). Accredited generators earn ROCs per MWh; suppliers comply by presenting ROCs or paying a statutory buy‑out price. The buy‑out fund is recycled to compliant suppliers, underpinning ROC value. Support levels are “banded” by technology. The regime is set out in secondary legislation (Renewables Obligation Orders) made under the Electricity Act 1989 in Great Britain, with a separate but aligned Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation (NIRO). The scheme closed to most new generating...

Renewables Obligation (RO) in England and Wales: accreditation, ROCs, supplier obligations and buy-out, banding, support duration, closure/grace periods, mutualisation and enforcement, co-location with storage and hydrogen

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Practice notes

What is the Renewables Obligation scheme?

The renewables obligation (RO) was designed to stimulate investment in renewable generation. It came into force in Great Britain in 2002, and in Northern Ireland in 2005. Under the scheme, electricity suppliers serving customers had to procure an ever-rising share of their wholesale power from renewable sources. Subject to certain exceptions, RO accreditation ended on 31 March 2015 for new solar PV and onshore wind projects, and from 1 April 2017 for all other new types of electricity generation. For more on this, see: Closure of the RO to new generation and grace periods below.

The Secretary of State (SoS) for Energy, Security and Net Zero, who leads the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), determines the obligation in line with the Renewables Obligation Order 2015 (RO Order 2015) SI 2015/1974, arts 7–13B. These determinations set a number of megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable output that suppliers must buy for each MWh of electricity, from any source, delivered to customers in England and Wales. DESNZ was established on 7 February 2023 and has taken over the energy portfolio of the...

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Matthew Collinson

Matt has specialised in energy and infrastructure projects since 2006, including in City practice and as an industry consultant. He has spent more than half his career as a general counsel in regulated energy supply and network businesses, and has written extensively on regulation of the gas and electricity sectors....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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