Miliband’s drive is reflected by his appointment of Chris Stark to head the “Mission Control for Clean Power”, bringing with him vast knowledge of net zero’s delivery challenges and experience of much-needed inter-governmental collaboration.
Scotland’s consenting regime for larger generation projects and overhead transmission lines is governed by the Electricity Act 1989. Under the Act, delivery of offshore windfarms requires a Section 36 consent and the overhead transmission infrastructure, which offshore windfarms rely upon, is consented under Section 37.
Unfortunately, the Act is now outdated and no longer equipped to deliver the infrastructure required.
With energy regulation a reserved matter, change requires Westminster legislation with UK-Scottish Government collaboration. Within months of Labour coming to power, a collaborative consultation for reform has been published.
The consultation includes a number of proposals to make consenting in Scotland under the Act more efficient.
Introducing formal pre-application requirements for local and statutory consultation may assist with early and effective engagement, thus reducing timescales. Changes to remove mandatory
Public Inquiry if the local planning authority objects may cut onshore delays.
Reforms to allow non-material variations of consents without formal application may bring flexibility. However, powers to potentially suspend or revoke consents may cause concern.
Equivalent provisions in Marine Licence legislation, which include pre-revocation safeguards, may require to be mirrored here to protect investor confidence.
One reform likely to be welcomed by developers of onshore infrastructure is a reduction in the time limit for commencing legal challenge from three months to six weeks and being made in the first instance to a higher Court, speeding up decisions and facilitating the delivery of much-needed infrastructure in Scotland.
These promising reforms and welcome collaboration must be seen as a beginning, not an end.
The scale of proposed offshore wind deployment also requires that Energy Act 2023 reforms – including allowing methods of “strategic” compensation and changes to the assessment of compensation – be implemented. Cross-UK collaboration is needed if Energy Act measures are to work and work soon.
We also still await documents necessary for the next stage of offshore delivery: Scotland’s Energy and Just Transition Plan and its updated Offshore Wind Policy Framework.
However, the evidence of impetus and collaboration should signal the investment opportunities which will result from better and closer working. This will, in turn, will be critical to Scotland achieving a just transition from the traditional oil and gas sectors.
