MCS Website Buckles Under Pressure As FiT Deadline Looms

There’s fears that the collapse of a key Government website could lead to a big loss of income, as solar installers rush to meet the 12 December feed-in tariff (Fit) deadline.

With the deadline to register solar PV installations just three days away, contractors faced more problems yesterday when an unusually large amount of traffic hitting the Microgeneration Certificate Scheme (MCS) website caused some serious technical issues.

Ranging from delays logging into the system to the website running painfully slow, despite working extra long hours to make sure customers’ have their solar PV systems installed in time, frustrated installers are now facing problems registering the systems for the feed-in tariff.

With thousands of householders worried their systems won’t be registered in time, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said they were aware that the MCS website was running slow and were monitoring and managing the situation.

Systems have until 12 December to be registered with a householder’s energy provider and the MCS, otherwise they stand to lose thousands of pounds in generated income when solar subsidies are slashed from 43.3p per kilowatt hour of electricity generated, to just 21p.