ECO installations hit highest level since 2015

The number of energy efficiency measures installed under the industry-funded Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme has hit its highest quarterly level since 2015, according to new government statistics.

The latest quarterly edition of the Household Energy Efficiency Statistics, which was published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy department today (26 August), shows a total of 138,000 measures were installed through the ECO programme from April to June this year.

This marks the highest quarterly delivery of ECO installations since the first quarter of 2015, before funding for the energy supplier-supported scheme was slashed by the government from £1.3 billion per annum to £640 million.

The 138,000 installations are also a record number delivered through ECO3, the latest phase of the energy efficiency scheme, which has been running since 2018.

The 54,100 measures installed in 28,000 households during June was another record for the number delivered in a single month under ECO3 and the highest monthly delivery through the programme since November 2014.

The measures installed during the second quarter of the year included 34,500 new boilers.

Delivery of ECO measures in the year’s second quarter were 13 per cent higher than in the first three months of 2021, which the update says continues the trend of increasing quarterly delivery following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Delivery of measures steadily increased during the second half of 2020.

The measures installed during the second quarter of the year will deliver estimated lifetime bill savings of £921 million for the households that have benefited from them, according to the bulletin.

Eligibility for the scheme has also been tightened to focus on fuel poor households under ECO3.

The release of the energy efficiency statistics follows last month’s publication of the latest monthly snapshot for delivery of the cancelled Green Homes Grant (GHG) energy efficiency and low-carbon heat voucher scheme.

According to this release, decisions have been made on “almost all” of the voucher applications submitted by the deadline of 31 March.

A total of 46,000 vouchers were issued to low-income households, equivalent to 64 per cent of the total, outstripping the proportion of such households across the population at large.

More than half (52 per cent) of the vouchers issued to low-income households were for insulation measures.

Low-income households were able to receive vouchers worth up to £10,000 under the GHG, twice the general cap, with eligibility based on receipt of certain benefits and tax credits.