DECC administers the Electricity Act 1989 and the Transport and Works Act 1992 (for offshore wind farms only), for developers seeking consents to build electricity generating stations and overhead lines.
DECC also administers the Electricity Act 1989 for:
- developers seeking consents to build electricity generating stations of over 50 MW (onshore) or over 1 MW in UK territorial waters (offshore)
- overhead lines and associated permissions (necessary wayleaves and compulsory purchase orders) in England and Wales.
The Scottish Executive handles applications in Scotland.
When processing development applications, DECC considers the environmental consequences of proposals, applying European requirements for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs):
These regulations were updated in 2007 to reflect the EU’s Public Participation Directive:
DECC also administers the Transport and Works Act 1992 in respect of energy-related applications in UK territorial waters adjoining England. For similar developments adjacent to Wales, the National Assembly for Wales decides. (NB: the Transport and Works Act does not apply in Scotland.)
Power station and overhead line consents (onshore)
Section 36 (power stations) and section 37 (overhead lines) of the Electricity Act 1989 take into account the views of the local planning authority, local people, statutory bodies (such as the Environment Agency), and other interested parties. All applications go through the local planning authority and appear on the local planning register. In some cases, there may be a public enquiry before the Secretary of State makes a decision.
One issue is the assessment of cumulative environmental impacts on some onshore wind farms. Entec, an environmental and engineering consultancy, has published a review of guidance on the assessment of cumulative impacts of onshore windfarms.
While the review concludes that current assessment processes are adequate, it does identify ways to make them more efficient and will be discussing these and other possible improvements with the report’s authors.
Power stations fuelled by oil or natural gas
Power stations of 10 MW or more, which use oil or natural gas, also require energy policy clearance under section 14 (1) of the Energy Act 1976. DECC administers this on a country basis – i.e. for England, Wales and Scotland.
Exploring Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
When submitting power station proposals (except renewable energy projects) under section 36 and under section 14, developers need to show they have explored opportunities to use Combined Heat and Power. You can find the latest guidance on this (in English and Welsh) and useful contacts here:
The guidance also applies to applications to the IPC upon commencement of S15 of the Planning Act 2008 under S104 of that Act.
Carbon Capture Readiness (CCR)
This guidance has been produced to explain the implementation through Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 (S36) of the Government’s policy on CCR. It is intended to supplement the existing guidance on the full application process for consent under S36. The guidance also applies to applications to the Infrastructure Planning Commission upon commencement of s.15 of the Planning Act 2008 under s.104 of that Act.
The guidance is relevant to applications for power stations with an electrical generating capacity at or over 300 MW (Gross Capacity) and of a type covered by the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive and only covers consent applications in England and Wales.
The purpose of the CCR guidance is to ensure these relevant power stations can be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment at some point in the future when it is technically and economically viable.
Table 1 in the CCR guidance provides an indicative requirement of the amount of space required based on a generating station with 500MW capacity. Since the publication of the CCR guidance, that requirement has been reviewed by Imperial College, London.
Their findings were published in the document below:
Wayleaves and compulsory purchase orders
DECC also administers compulsory wayleaves and purchase orders sought by electricity companies. Guidance for applicants, landowners and occupiers on wayleave procedures is available here:
There is no guidance on compulsory purchase but DECC follows the practice set out in Circular 06/2004 Compulsory Purchase and the Crichel Down Rules.