Proposals regarding the planning system for electricity storage

Overview

The Progress Update to the Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, published in October 2018, stated that we would consult on the treatment of electricity storage within the planning system. This consultation considers and seeks views on the following proposals:

• To retain the 50MW Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) threshold that applies to standalone storage projects; and
• To amend the Planning Act 2008 to establish a new NSIP capacity threshold for composite projects including storage and another form of generation, such that a composite project would only fall under the NSIP regime where either the capacity of the storage element is more than 50MW or the capacity excluding any electricity storage is more than 50MW.

The proposals outlined in this consultation are intended to apply to England only.

The consultation includes an annex containing a preliminary analysis of the potential costs and benefits of our proposals.