Consult Applications Electricity Act RevA - AM reviewed
Renfrewshire Council · 17 March 2026
Back to Planning and Climate Change Policy Board — 17 March 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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2 PUBLIC ___________________________________________________________________ To: Planning and Climate Change Policy Board On: 17 March 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Consultation on Increasing the Threshold for Applications under the Electricity Act ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Scottish Government has recently published a consultation seeking views on potentially increasing the current threshold of 50MW for onshore electricity generating stations to be considered by local authorities. Increasing the 50MW threshold, whether for all or only some technologies, would effectively transfer responsibility for deciding more electricity generating station related applications to planning authorities as the determining authority. 1.2 This report provides an overview of the topics covered by the consultation document and details the response proposed to be submitted by officers prior to the submission deadline of 27th March 2026. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Board: ▪ Note that The Scottish Government published a consultation on the threshold and seek comments on proposed changes from planning authorities. ▪ Agree with the proposed response set out in Appendix 1 below to be submitted by officers prior to the submission deadline of 27th March 2026. _________________________________________________________
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3 PUBLIC 3. Background 3.1 The Scottish Government has recently published a consultation seeking views on potentially increasing the current threshold of 50MW for onshore electricity generating stations to be considered by local authorities. Increasing the 50MW threshold, whether for all or only some technologies, would transfer responsibility for deciding more applications to planning authorities. 3.2 A consultation document was recently published, and planning authorities were invited to make comments on the potential changes. 3.3 The consultation paper can be viewed at: Onshore electricity generation - Electricity Act threshold: consultation - gov.scot 3.4 Comments require to be submitted to Scottish Government by 27th March 2026. ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Proposed Changes 4.1 Scottish Ministers are responsible for deciding applications to build, operate or modify onshore electricity generating stations (including wind farms, solar arrays, battery storage and hydro scheme projects) with capacities exceeding 50 megawatts (MW) under powers contained in the Electricity Act 1989. Where consent is granted under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, Scottish Ministers have the power under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 to grant ‘deemed’ planning permission. The local planning authority is a statutory consultee as part of the Section 36 process. 4.2 Applications concerning onshore electricity generating stations with capacities of 50 MW or less are dealt with as applications for planning permission and are largely determined by planning authorities under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended. 4.3 The consultation document invites views from planning authorities on potentially increasing the 50MW threshold which determines whether applications for onshore electricity generating stations are decided by Scottish Ministers or by the relevant planning authority. The consultation document comprises of a number of sub-sections including planning policy framework, a summary of the technologies considered under Section 36 and relevant considerations including decision making, timescales, resourcing and fees. The consultation document also includes a consideration of equivalent thresholds elsewhere the UK and data and statistics in terms of the types, categories, quantities of electricity generating developments across Scotland in 2025. ___________________________________________________________________
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4 PUBLIC 5. Next Steps 5.1 Officers have reviewed the consultation document and have prepared a response ahead of the deadline for submissions on 27th March 2026. A copy of the response is detailed in Appendix 1 of this report. 5.2 It is recommended that the Board agree with the proposed response set out in Appendix 1 of this report to be submitted by officers prior to the submission deadline of 27th March 2026. __________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial – None. 2. HR & Organisational Development – None 3. Community/Council Planning – None. 4. Legal – None. 5. Property/Assets – None. 6. Information Technology – None. 7. Equality & Human Rights - The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report 8. Health & Safety – None. 9. Procurement – None. 10. Risk – None. 11. Privacy Impact – None. 12. Climate Risk – None. 13. Children’s Rights – None 14. Cosla Policy Position – None. Author: Ross Lee, Development Standards Manager. Tel: 07811899920; Email: ross.lee@renfrewshire.gov.uk
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5 PUBLIC APPENDIX 1: Response to Consultation Paper On-Shore Electricity Generation: Consultation on increasing the threshold for applications under the Electricity Act Respondent Information Form Please Note this form must be completed and returned with your response. To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy: https://www.gov.scot/privacy/ Are you responding as an individual or an organisation? Individual Organisation (TICK) Full name or organisation’s name Phone number Address Postcode Email Address The Scottish Government would like your permission to publish your consultation response. Please indicate your publishing preference: Publish response with name Publish response only (without name) Do not publish response Renfrewshire Council Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley. 07811899920 PA1 1JD dc@renfrewshire.gov.uk Information for organisations: The option 'Publish response only (without name)’ is available for individual respondents only. If this option is selected, the organisation name will still be published. If you choose the option 'Do not publish response', your organisation name may still be listed as having responded to the consultation in, for example, the analysis report.
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6 PUBLIC We will share your response internally with other Scottish Government policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for Scottish Government to contact you again in relation to this consultation exercise? Yes No
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7 PUBLIC Questionnaire Question 1 Should there be a single threshold applicable to all technologies? Yes No No View Please give reasons for your answer. Question 2 What threshold should apply for applications for electricity generation to be determined by planning authorities? 50MW 100MW 150MW Please add any comment in support of your answer. Renfrewshire Council do not consider that a single ‘catch all’ threshold is appropriate given the material differences and diversity involved in the assessment and consideration of different types and categories of electricity generating developments. In particular, the output generating capacity relative to the physical, environmental, visual, amenity impact of the development varies greatly between the different types of electricity generating developments. For example, the difference in the footprint and required landholding between a 100MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and a 100MW Solar array or 100MW Wind Farm could be significant and the suite of considerations as a result of this could also be materially different. As outlined in response to Question 1 above, Renfrewshire Council consider that it will be necessary to have bespoke/dedicated thresholds relative to the different types of electricity generation development categories that exist for the reasons stated.
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8 PUBLIC Question 3 Any change to the threshold would apply only to new applications. Do you have any comments on transitional arrangements? Question 4 Renfrewshire Council’s only comment in this regard is that for current applications determined by the Scottish Governments Energy Consent Unit (ECU) which would then be below the new threshold and in future would be determined by planning authorities, that this should be reflected in the ECUs overall assessment and even greater weight attached to the planning authorities position in these cases. Greater control and input from the planning authority into any conditions to be attached to any such cases would also be useful to ensure consistent with how similar future applications would be assessed in the event the planning authority would be the determining authority.
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9 PUBLIC Do you have any other comments to add? Renfrewshire Council considers that the work undertaken by the planning authority as a statutory consultee to the Section 36 application process is generally commensurate with the work undertaken if the planning authority were the determining authority. Essentially, the assessment process and associated consultation activity (to inform our overall assessment) undertaken through the Section 36 application process is in many respects indistinguishable from scenarios where the planning authority are determining an electricity generation development as a planning application. The distinctions and differences between being determining authority or a statutory consultee essentially relate to a few procedural matters. Despite the limited differences in practice, where the planning authority is a statutory consultee engaged through a Section 36 application, the downside is that we will often lose a degree of control in terms of both the conditions and of course the final decision. Notwithstanding this, the onus is also on the planning authority to both assess and discharge the planning conditions attached to the deemed consent which is some cases the planning authority would have not imposed if we had been determining authority. On this basis and subject to an appropriate fee payment scale and sufficient resourcing within the service, Renfrewshire Council consider that the planning authority could be capable of determining both more and larger scale planning applications concerning energy generating developments. We see benefit in terms of being to be apply local knowledge, having greater control over key aspects of the development, autonomy in terms of the conditions attached to any decision and thereafter an understanding of the monitoring expectations and obligations of the future development. Our only concerns to this approach that a shift to local planning authority decision making may: • Prevent a wider strategic overview and result in decisions not taking into consideration the national significance of projects as well as both best practices, case law and changes in approaches that the centralised ECU are likely to be more aware given the exposure to such developments across Scotland. • Potential for more electricity generating developments to go before the Council’s Planning Committee depending on the scheme of delegation. In turn, greater uncertainty in decision making may arise as a result of the introduction of another step in the determination route. In addition, this may result in an increase in the number of proposals being considered by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA). We consider that the implications of this would need to be carefully considered when reviewing any potential changes to the thresholds. • Resourcing at local planning authority level and ensuring that we have professional officers within the team who have capacity and expertise to prioritise the assessment and determination of these applications. • Increased reliance on external consultees and advisors to assess aspects of these developments where there is no in-house technical expertise at the Council. This includes landscape impacts, ecological, hydrology. This in turn has an impact on budget and resources.
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10 PUBLIC Question 5 Do you have any comments on the partial and draft impact assessments undertaken? Question 6 Do you have any suggestions for additional sources of information on the potential impacts of the proposals that could help inform our final assessments? Renfrewshire Council has no comments to make on this. Renfrewshire Council has no comments to make on this.