THE government department responsible for launching the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme did "not provide numerical forecasts" of applications while the regulator did not carry out an independent risk assessment, the public inquiry heard yesterday.
The inquiry into the botched heating scheme heard evidence yesterday from Matthew Harnack, a senior official in E-serve, part of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), which was brought in to assist in creating the scheme in 2012.
With previous experience in renewable energy schemes in Australia, Mr Harnack was responsible for the "day-to-day oversight" of the team working on the RHI scheme.
Mr Harnack said that Ofgem was "happy" for the RHI scheme to proceed in Northern Ireland provided it "mirrored the British scheme".
However, by early 2013, an internal email by Mr Harnack outlined his frustration in dealing with the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti), saying there were "headaches" and adding that taking on additional work would be "such small fry that it isn't worth the hassle".
Mr Harnack explained: "It became apparent that we were not going to get back all the fixed costs, anything that we had to do over and above the GB scheme.
"Deti didn't provide numerical forecasts. We asked them to provide forecasts. They said they expected the uptake to be 3% of the GB funding.
"DETI had made their views clear (to proceed)....but also said don't worry, we will be implementing these changes shortly after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Dec) does in Britain," he added.
The former senior Ofgem official said that he was unable to shed any light on how or why a submission by Marcus Porter, a legal adviser to the regulator, was omitted from a quarterly report produced by E-serve.
In the draft report, Mr Porter, who has previously appeared as a witness at the inquiry, advised Ofgem to defer backing the RHI scheme in Northern Ireland until changes implemented in Britain were replicated.
Senior counsel to the inquiry, David Scoffield, outlined how the ideas of forming a monitoring board and carrying out an independent risk assessment specific to Northern Ireland were floated but never happened.
The risk assessment was "combined with GB to save costs", but Mr Harnack said he couldn't recall if that "ever happened".
By August 2012, Ofgem had calculated development costs to be £700,000, almost double the initial figure outlined to DETI, although Ofgem later revised this back down to £430,000.
Emails within Ofgem described Deti's energy boss, Fiona Hepper, as being "furious" when informed by the regulator of the potential increase.
However, the correspondence stated that Deti officials had reported that the then minister, Arlene Foster, was "adamant that the scheme must go live in October".
