Hydro abstraction charges have been disputed by Alba Energy and the British Hydropower Association (BHA), since they were first applied in 2017, with SEPA struggling to justify the amounts being levied from the Small Hydro sector.
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Hydro charges still under review
In December 2020 SEPA opened a consultation on the charges to which the Alba membership were strongly encouraged to respond. However, on Christmas Eve a cyber-attack rendered SEPA inoperable.
While the Consultation was still open and responses were logged, the damage to the environment agency’s systems was so severe it was only in May 2021 that they were fully functional again.
The Consultation itself was extended from mid-February until the end of April and this, combined with SEPA’s dysfunction, has meant the results are still unknown.
Alba Energy understands that recommendations following the consultation have now been submitted to the SEPA board but neither Alba nor the BHA have had visibility of them.
Invoices have recently been issued for Annual Charges from April 2021 – March 2022, based on the old methodology. Alba understands that if a new charging methodology is adopted and signed off by Ministers during this charging period then a rebate (or additional charge) will be raised to cover the time from Ministerial signature until the next invoice date in April 2022.
The problem SEPA faces in providing a coherent rational for its charging system has been further highlighted by the annual Reservoir charges, which have recently been invoiced to storage scheme owners on the basis that SEPA requires to be reimbursed for its management of data.
Having lost all its records, however, SEPA had to ask reservoir managers to re-send all relevant documentation and then charged them for their efforts.
The validity of these charges are also being questioned by Alba and the BHA.
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