The list below is a record of advice the Planning Inspectorate has provided in respect of the Planning Act 2008 process.
There is a statutory duty under section 51 of the Planning Act 2008 to record the advice that is given in relation to an application or a potential application and to make this publicly available. Advice we have provided is recorded below together with the name of the person or organisation who asked for the advice and the project it relates to. The privacy of any other personal information will be protected in accordance with our Information Charter which you should view before sending information to the Planning Inspectorate.
Note that after a project page has been created for a particular application, any advice provided that relates to it will also be published under the ‘s51 advice’ tab on the relevant project page.
Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived. View the archived advice.
General
Enquiry
Planning permission has been granted for a new battery storage facility in South Oxfordshire with a capacity of more than 50MW - does this mean that battery storage is not regarded as a form of energy generation, as defined in the Planning Act 2008?
Advice given
There Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy issued a consultation and call for evidence regarding energy storage on 10 November 2016. The consultation closes on 12 January 2017: attachment 1
Para 22 of the consultation document states, "For the time being BEIS, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government agree that a storage facility is a form of electricity generating station. This means that a storage facility with a capacity of >50MW in England and Wales will need development consent as required by sections 15 and 31 of the Planning Act 2008 or Scottish Ministers’ consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act. We believe further clarity is needed within the planning framework about how to classify and treat storage projects, given the emerging nature of the market and new technologies."
PINS has advised officials at the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and the local planning authority that planning permission has been granted for an energy storage facility that may be an NSIP, for which development consent is required under s31 of the Planning Act 2008. Under Part 8 (Enforcement) of the Planning Act 2008 the local planning authority may decide about the expediency of undertaking an investigation and any action that could result.
