I hope you can assist me with the following question regarding a potential project my company is considering. The project is the design & construction of a combined heat & power (CHP) project that will primarily provide electricity & steam to an existing industrial site who will use this electricity & steam for their current process requirements. The proposed CHP plant will provide the following electricity & steam to the existing industrial site;
• ~50MWe
• ~153MWth
The proposed CHP plant will replace in its entirety a similar existing CHP plant that currently provides electricity & steam to the existing industrial site as the existing CHP plant has been in operation for ~20 years & may not meet emissions limits going forward & which is located within the industrial sites boundary. Finally, the proposed CHP plant will be built on “brownfield” land within the existing industrial sites boundary directly adjacent to the current CHP plant. I would therefore like to know the following;
I understand a threshold between local planning & NSIP consenting is 50MWe however, can you advise if the value of 50MWe is associated with power plant that exports the power to the local electricity network or grid rather than CHP plant where the majority of power generated is used by an industrial user?

The Planning Act 2008 (as amended) (‘the Act’) governs the development consent process for dealing with ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects (‘NSIPs’).
The National Policy Statements (‘NPSs’) set out national policy for NSIPs. There are six NPSs for energy infrastructure which have effect on the recommendations and decisions on applications for energy developments that fall within their scope.
Under Section 14(1)(a) of the Act the construction or extension of a generating station is defined as an NSIP. Section 15 of the Act clarifies that the construction or extension of a generating station is within section 14(1)(a) only if the generating station is or (when constructed or extended) is expected to be, amongst other things, a generating station that is in England or Wales, not an offshore generating station, and its capacity is more than 50 megawatts.
Section 31 makes clear that consent under the Act is required for development that is or forms part of an NSIP. There is no mechanism under the Act to exempt projects from the NSIP process if they meet the relevant thresholds. The Planning Act 2008 uses the term ‘generating station’, which does not distinguish between combined heat and power (‘CHP’) generating stations and other generating stations. Nonetheless, the energy NPSs EN-1 and EN-2 make clear that CHP development does fall under the NSIP regime.
In your email of 21 April you outline “The proposed CHP plant will provide the following electricity & steam to the existing industrial site [50MWe (153MWth)]… if the value of 50MWe is associated with power plant that exports the power to the local electricity network or grid rather than CHP plant where the majority of power generated is used by an industrial user?”
As noted above, the construction/extension of a generating station is an NSIP if, its capacity is more than 50 megawatts. The current practice is to use ‘total installed capacity’ as the PA2008 does not define “capacity”. The Renewable Order 2009 defines ‘total installed capacity’ in relation to a generating station as the maximum capacity at which the station could be operated for a sustained period without causing damage to it (assuming the source of power used by it to generate electricity was available to it without interruption).
As the anticipated generation of the plant is 50MWe and not above the threshold, the development would not fall under the NSIP regime.
We trust you find this information satisfactory, however if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact our office.