Government and industry are making moves to restart collection of Capacity Market payments from suppliers.
The market is suspended following a legal challenge by Tempus Energy.
Government is running a consultation on technical amendments to the CM to avoid potentially big clawbacks should the CM be re-approved by the European Commission following a formal investigation, which Beis hopes will start early next year.
The consultation also covers plans for a summer top up auction for delivery next winter while the investigation is ongoing.
The plan is to keep collecting payments from suppliers – so the CM charge will still be levied on customer bills – and then pay the money to capacity providers if and when the CM clears State Aid rules, which Beis is confident will happen before next winter.
By continuing to take payments, the hope is to give capacity providers some comfort that they will eventually get paid for agreements awarded to date.
The consultation closes on 10 January, see details here.
In the meantime, industry parties will today aim to push through a code amendment that allows collection of payments to recommence, see details here.
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Your second paragraph should read that the suspension is due to an unequivocal legal ruling from the European Court of Justice, , upholding a complaint from Tempus Energy concerning the market distortions caused by the U.K. capacity market.