From 1st March 2016 a new regime for determining planning applications for energy generating schemes of between 10MW and 50MW is coming into force in Wales. Developments that fall in to this category will be classified as ‘Developments of National Significance’ (DNS) and will be determined by Welsh Ministers rather than the Local Planning Authority (LPA).
My initial reaction was one of shock (as reflected in my
recent quotes in Planning Magazine)! The original consultation document had proposed that energy generating schemes of between 25MW and 50MW would be DNS, with 50MW and above still falling under the NSIP regime and below 25MW being determined by LPAs. Then, having listened to a minority of consultees, it was proposed to reduce the minimum threshold to 10MW. This was passed by Welsh Ministers on 26 January 2016.
The implications for some of our clients are huge. What was once an inconspicuous 14-16MW energy generation scheme based on gas generators installed in either new or existing employment units (that are not classified as major development nor require EIA), these developments will now be DNS. As a DNS they will be subject to highly onerous pre-application requirements (I won’t go in to detail here, give me a ring if you want to discuss!) and Welsh Ministers have 36 weeks to make a decision. Not quite the 8-week determination target they are (quite rightly) used to.
The Welsh Government consultation report calculated that, as a result of the 10-50MW threshold, 5.9 extra applications would be determined by Welsh Ministers. This seems rather low as NLP alone has submitted over 5 applications for Welsh generation facilities that would fall into this category in the last year. Our schemes were probably not included in the count because they do not register as major development.
They should not fall within the DNS regime but they do. And now our clients are, understandably, seriously considering whether to move investment in new energy generation facilities out of Wales. These are smaller scale facilities that would never meet all of Wales’ energy needs; their purpose is to come on line only when they are called upon at short notice by the National Grid. Unknown to most people, these facilities are located all over Wales, and they are called upon almost daily thereby avoiding the danger that there may be insufficient energy being generated to fill ever increasing short term energy gaps.
It is not all doom and gloom though. Whilst I strongly feel that gas generating facilities should be subject to a higher minimum threshold, the DNS regime should help our solar and wind energy clients that can (and sometimes do) have a particularly rough ride through the planning system.
Having more energy projects determined at the national level will hopefully allow for the bigger picture/national issues to be given more weight in decision making. Although the National Development Framework (NDF) will not be of much help, initially, as it is not scheduled for adoption until 2019…
So in the interim DNS will be determined on the same policy basis as existing applications – Planning Policy Wales and Local Development Plans. Until the NDF is adopted I assume that the ‘bigger picture’ will have to be based on rational judgement. On occasions there doesn’t appear to be a surplus of that in Welsh Government – but you can draw your own conclusions.
