LONDON (Reuters) - The British government has launched a consultation on relaxing certain obligations under its capacity market scheme which pays utilities to provide back-up electricity, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scheme allows British power companies to receive funds to help cover costs of keeping extra generation available at short notice in the case of sudden supply disruptions.
The government said it was considering temporarily modifying the scheme's rules and regulations or relaxing certain deadlines and obligations to reduce the administrative and operational burdens on suppliers and minimise the likelihood of contract terminations.
In addition, an appeals process could be temporarily modified to give capacity providers more time to appeal, and to provide the government more ability to extend the time for capacity providers to achieve compliance, the government said.
The consultation is open until April 30, it added.
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
