Infrastructure planning & consultation: using 3D animation

With community consultation a vital component of the planning process for energy projects, Taylor Keogh works with 3D Web Technologies, one of the UK’s leading computer graphics firm. The company designs interactive computer generated models that allow people to see and understand how new infrastructure projects, such as an onshore or offshore wind farm, a gas-fired power station or overhead pylons, will look against the existing landscape. Over the past 18 months, the company has worked with EDF Energy, E.ON and RWE npower.

Photo-montages, from fixed locations, have been used for many years but this interactive technology offers councils and communities a new way of seeing how projects will actually look.

Visual impact is often given as a main reason why a planning application is refused and 3D’s technology is helping to win applications by assuring people about the impact of a proposed project on their local environment. www.3dwebtech.co.uk

Planning regime gearing up for further change

Whilst the Infrastructure Planning Commission is set to continue until possibly as long as April 2012, the planning regime for infrastructure projects is set for further change as the Government seeks to ratify its National Policy Statements (by Spring 2011) and brings forward its Decentralisation & Localism Bill. The Bill will see the abolition of the IPC (to be merged into the Planning Inspectorate), devolution of greater powers to local authorities but with final decisions on major projects resting with the Secretary of State.

Ideally, the Government wants to see the best parts of the 2008 Planning Act (NPSs, statutory timetables and a single consenting regime) to dovetail with the Decentralisation & Localism Bill.

In the autumn of next year, it is conceivable that there will be three different consenting processes running concurrently for major energy projects: (1) applications lodged before the establishment of the IPC still going through the old ‘Section 36’ regime, (2) projects taken forward under the IPC framework: presently 48 out of the 54 projects (of which 80% are energy related) registered with the IPC are still at the pre-application stage and (3) projects that will be processed under the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit regime created by the Decentralisation and Localism Act Bill. This is set to go live in October 2011.

In practice, much of the IPC process and personnel are likely to remain in situ under a new name, with a Secretary of State, rather than an IPC commissioner giving the final seal of approval.

The IPC appears to be working “business as usual”: receiving applications, offering advice to developers and council planners as well as outreach work to local communities. Although the transition period is in their sights, the IPC are hopeful that the first batch of decisions will be made by the middle of next year.

Irrespective of the planning regime that is in place, public consultation is enshrined. Communication has always been a vital part of a successful consents process. Open dialogue with elected representatives and local communities and interest groups has always been necessary but now it is a statutory requirement.

Too often, the myths and fears of a proposed project become the biggest obstacle, and any barrier between the local community and the developer can lead to distrust and disapproval. Similarly, local politicians and officers can be lost straight away if the project is felt to have landed upon them with no warning. A proper introduction, not only to the project but the company as well, can ensure that the merits of any scheme have an increased chance of being heard.

Communication with the local community is vital, no matter how big a development is, as a groundswell against a proposed scheme at local level can be a project killer or at the very least be costly. Genuine dialogue is needed.

Government set to introduce Energy Security Bill

The long-awaited Energy Security & Green Economy Bill is expected to be introduced in the House of Lords in the first week of December. The Bill has been widely trailed, and barring any last minute changes, the bulk of the Bill will surround the ‘Green Deal’, changes in the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target and importantly measures to improve the UK’s energy security.

The energy sector is used to the government introducing Energy Bills on a virtually annual basis, but for the Coalition which talks about wanting to be the ‘Greenest Government ever’ the Energy Security & Green Economy Bill will be the first taste of how this important piece of government legislation matches their previous rhetoric.

Since assuming power, the DECC ministerial team has been assiduous in keeping “on message”: on generation, they have been clear in stating their wish to see new nuclear, clean coal and gas, and more renewables (principally offshore wind, though still wishing to have onshore wind and biomass and in the longer-term wave and tidal). Ministers speak of the need to invest more than £200bn over the next decade to transform the country’s energy infrastructure: this will be a challenge given the financial climate, competing priorities for investment, and issues such as regulation and the UK’s planning process.

Looking more closely at the expected content of the Energy Bill, it is aimed at energy companies and suppliers, although the flagship Green Deal policy will require a large public take-up for it not to be considered a failure. The Government is expecting 250,000 new jobs to be created as a result of the Green Deal.

The Green Deal is centred on the premise of increasing the energy efficiency of properties, both domestic and non-domestic, and unlike the Warm Front policy of the previous government, there will be no subsidy for any improvements. Payments for work carried out will be attached to a property’s energy bills, which will then stay with the property, rather than moving with the individual.

It will be the energy company’s responsibility to collect these payments, and works carried out will have to be compliant with government guidelines, the primary one being the improvement will have to have a sufficient payback within the period, ensuring then policy’s “pay as you save” principle.

Another aspect of the Bill will be the creation of the new ‘Energy Company Obligation’, which will replace the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target system that is due to expire in 2012. As a way of ensuring energy efficiency households to fund certain efficiency improvements, the CERT scheme has had some success, but the new obligation is intended to work in unison with the Green Deal, especially towards those on low incomes and the vulnerable.

In addition, there will be new measures aiming at better security for gas and electricity supplies with new powers for OFGEM.

Some important areas of energy policy are not covered in the Bill; these include the Green Investment Bank (expected to take shape in the Spring of 2011), the possible carbon floor price and the changes in renewable subsidies. The future of ROCs is still uncertain as the outcome of the ROCs banding review is awaited (Q2/Q3 2011), as are the levels of support within the Feed-in Tariff.

There are already plans for another Energy Bill for the end of 2011, and it is also expected that details of the carbon floor and future funding levels are to be announced in the next Budget.

Given the importance of the energy sector to the British economy and indeed the country’s national security, coupled with the Government’s environmental and climate change policy objectives, the public policy and political agendas for those working in the sector will be challenging for a good few years.