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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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
I write to seek clarification with regards the NSIP thresholds with regards energy projects.
From the Planning Act 2008 (as amended) and NPS EN-1 it reads that the 50MW threshold relates solely to the potential electricity output of a scheme. Could you confirm (or advise otherwise) if this is the case where a generating station may provide both electricity and heat output, i.e. that the 50MW threshold relates solely to the electricity output of the project and not the combined MW output of both the electricity and heat output? Assuming this is correct, then the heat output would be viewed as ancillary and not included within the 50MW threshold for determining an NSIP.
Advice given
As per section 15 (2) of the Planning Act 2008 ("The Act") a generating station would be considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) if the following criteria is met;
(a) it is in England or Wales,
(b) it is not an offshore generating station, and
(c ) its capacity is more than 50 megawatts.
Our understanding is that "capacity" has the same meaning as in the Electricity Act 1989 - namely electricity generating capacity. If you would like to provide us with any project specifics we would be happy to advise further.
