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Strategy Groups

Both Sponsoring and Corporate members are encouraged to actively participate in policy development and political campaigning work via our Strategy Groups, concentrating on specific policy areas.

Each Strategy Group focuses on a group of policies affecting the microgeneration sector and aims to achieve the overarching objectives set out by the Executive Committee (Sponsoring) members. Strategy Groups generally meet at 3 monthly intervals and members can find out when meetings are scheduled to take place on the ‘Events’ page of this website. Strategy Groups are chaired by representatives of Sponsoring Member companies with expertise in that particular policy area.

Quality & Skills Strategy Group

(Currently chaired by Steve Keeton of Vaillant)
This Group focuses on policy issues surrounding consumer protection and quality assurance as well as ensuring that an adequate skills base exists to service the projected increase in demand for microgeneration technologies in homes and businesses moving forward. In this Group, key work streams include:

  • Campaigning for a version of the Government's Standard Assessment Procedure for the Energy Rating of Dwellings (SAP), (link to http://www.bre.co.uk/sap2009/page.jsp?id=1642) that is fit for purpose and provides accurate estimates of energy consumption, energy costs, CO2 emission rate and environmental impact of any given home in Britain.
  • Feeding into fair governance reform of and transparent management of Standards within the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (link to http://www.microgenerationcertification.org/), an independent scheme designed to evaluate microgeneration products and installers against robust criteria to provide consumers with the widest possible choice of quality-assured products.
  • Working together to match training with the ‘green skills' base that our industry will need in order for supply to meet rapidly increasing demand.

Microgeneration Market Creation Group

(Currently chaired by Rob Knight of NPower)
This Group is focusing on the financial incentive schemes, initiated under the previous Government, which will boost demand amongst consumers by making installation of microgeneration technologies an attractive economic proposition for private householders, social landlords and others. Key work streams include:

  • Timely introduction and smooth implementation of the Renewable Heat Incentive, as consulted on prior to the General Election 2010
  • Ongoing data gathering on and monitoring of carbon savings, displaced gas imports, fuel poverty alleviation and other anticipated effects of introduction of the Feed-in Tariff and the consequent increase in microgeneration of electricity, in preparation for the review of tariff levels in 2013

The ‘Microgeneration Strategy' Working Group

(Currently chaired by John Mason of EDF)

The Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Act 2009, behind which the Micropower Council was a driving force, obliged the Secretary of State to publish a new Strategy for the promotion of microgeneration in England within 12 months of the Act becoming law. A new Strategy is therefore due to be published in July 2010 and a stakeholder consultation process will begin.

The Micropower Council has published its own blueprint of the key issues that the new Microgeneration Strategy will need to cover, in the form of our Microgeneration Manifesto (so that site visitor can click here and open Manifesto - attached). The key elements of the Manifesto are as follows:

  • Cohesive support, via a coherent financial and fiscal strategy for microgeneration and successful implementation of financial incentives for microgeneration of heat and electricity
  • Clear consumer information, including targeted guidance to ensure that the fuel poor also benefit from policy measures
  • Comprehensive retrofit, through Individual Home Emission Reduction Plans and more stringent requirements for private rental and social landlords
  • Credible career options designed to fill skill gaps up to 2020 and matching of ‘green training' with areas suffering from high unemployment and fuel poverty

This Strategy Group has been set up to ‘shadow' the DECC consultation process, feeding into and informing any calls for evidence and participating in discussion forums. Our aim will be to ensure that the structure of the final Microgeneration Strategy published in 2011 resembles our Micropower Council Microgeneration Manifesto as closely as possible.

Microgen Messaging Group

(Chair TBC)

Clear and accessible consumer information on microgeneration technologies and the financial products and other support that is available to householders, landlords and business owners is vital if we are to be successful in our mission to create a genuine mass market for small scale low and zero carbon generation of heat and electricity.

This Strategy Group exists to enable industry to feed into consumer information projects organised by the Energy Saving Trust and other stakeholders. This Group has a supportive rather than a proactive role and members have agreed that for the time being this Group will keep a watching brief on developments in this important policy area.