work on the National Grid which would allow more renewable capacity to be connected. They also stressed the need to maintain stability in the marketplace to maintain the confidence of investors. The concerns of both bodies seem to be shared by the Renewable Energy Association. The Scottish Wind Assessment Project has criticised the scheme for rewarding reductions in renewable electricity output: two electricity suppliers, Scottish and Southern Energy and Npower, down-rated several large hydro-power stations in order to qualify for Renewables Obligation Certificates. Banding The Renewables Obligation represents the UK Government's main policy measure for stimulating the growth of electricity generation from renewable sources. The Government envisages that 30% of electricity demand will need to be generated by renewable sources in order for the UK to meet a legally binding EU target of obtaining 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Renewables Obligation is a market-based mechanism designed to incentivise the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources over more traditional alternatives at a reasonable cost. When it was first introduced in 2002, each form of renewable energy technology received the same level of support, namely one ROC/MWh of electricity generated. This was a conscious decision as the Government was keen to promote a market-led approach, emphasising competition between technologies to minimise cost, and did not want to distort the market by appearing to place the importance of certain technologies above others. As a result, whilst being ostensibly technology-neutral, the Renewables Obligation in its original form in fact favoured the deployment of the more established, near-market technologies such as landfill gas and onshore wind, those which were most economically efficient, over less well developed technologies that were further from commercial viability. A review of the performance of the Renewables Obligation was announced in 2003. Modelling of future deployment scenarios indicated that targets would not be met with current levels of support due to constraints on the availability and deployment of the most established technologies. A significant contribution would therefore be required from less mature technologies which lacked sufficient incentive to develop into feasible alternatives under the original scheme. The Government announced its intention to reform the Renewables Obligation in 2006. Banding was introduced in 2009 to provide differing levels of support to groups of technologies depending upon their relative maturity, development cost and associated risk. Whilst increasing the incentive for technologies in the early stages of development this