Legislation

European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS)

This legislation applies to sites that have combustion equipment or industrial plant that exceed a certain capacity. It aims to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by giving allowances for carbon dioxide emissions to the sites that are affected by the legislation. The amount of allowances is based on emissions figures for previous years less a percentage. If in a given year the site exceeds the number of allowances it has been given it has to carry out carbon trading and purchase the number of allowances needed to make up the difference or face a financial penalty. The scheme has covered carbon dioxide emissions since 1/1/05.

The Central Heating station exceeds 20MW thermal heat input and is therefore covered by the EU-ETS scheme.

Scottish Building Standards

The Scottish Building Standards include section 6 – Energy. These standards refer to European Standards.