THE European Commission has approved cost-cutting measures to the botched Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in an attempt to reduce the £490m overspend.
Cost controls were belatedly introduced in November 2015, but only applied to new applications and did not cover a huge spike over the previous three months.
In January this year economy minister Simon Hamilton brought forward legislation to control payments to all installations, although the measures will only initially be in place for a year and are currently subject to a legal challenge.
The controls include a 'tiered' tariff system, whereby medium-sized boilers will move to a lower payment after a set number of operating hours, and an overall cap on hours for which subsidies can be paid in a given year, bringing the scheme into line with Britain.
Inspections of more than 2,000 RHI installations are also due to take place later this year, with the £2m contract currently out for tender.
