East Suffolk Council
Offshore windfarms
The project is located approximately 36km from its nearest point the port of Lowestoft and then 42km to Southwold with a potential generating capacity of up to 800 megawatts.
Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) is in the pre-application phase for two new offshore wind farm projects in the East Anglia zone. They are currently in the construction phase of East Anglia One (granted consent by the Secretary of State in June 2014) and the post-planning phase of East Anglia Three (granted consent by the Secretary of State in August 2017).
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East Anglia One North The project is located approximately 36km from its nearest point the port of Lowestoft and then 42km to Southwold with a potential generating capacity of up to 800 megawatts. |
East Anglia Two The project is located approximately 32.56km from its nearest point to the coast at Southwold and 37.02km to the port of Lowestoft with a potential generating capacity of up to 900 megawatts. |
The district and county councils are taking a joint local authority approach to the proposals and where possible responding jointly.
The proposals are being dealt with as two Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. There are proposed to be six key milestones in the planning phase of the proposals: they are currently running simultaneously but this may change in the future:North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms
- Phase 1: Informal Public Information Days (PIDs) - Completed
- Phase 2: Formal PIDs - Completed 17 April 2018
- Phase 3: Formal PIDs - Completed 28 August 2018
- Phase 3.5: Formal PIDs - Completed 12 November 2018
- Phase 4: Formal PIDs - Completed 9 March 2019
Submission of Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Secretary of State – the DCO will be developed following the refinement of proposals from the consultation phases. The Planning Inspectorate will lead an assessment of the proposals. The local authorities are stakeholders in the process and not the determining authority.
Decision by the Secretary of State – following its assessment, the Planning Inspectorate will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State will make their final decision within three months of receiving the recommendation.
We responded to the Planning Inspectorate in relation to the Scoping Opinion:
The first phase of public consultation (Phase 2) took place in March/April 2018:
The second round of public consultation (Phase 3) took place between May and August 2018:
The third round of public consultation (Phase 3.5) began on 29 September2018.
On 17 October 2018, together with Suffolk County Council, we sent a joint letter to Scottish Power Renewables, requesting an extension of the consultation period by two weeks in Phase 3.5 for East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms.
Scottish Power Renewables listened and extended the consultation deadline for each proposal from 29 October to 12 November 2018.
The fourth round of public consultation (Phase 4) took place between 11 February and 26 March 2019.
The head line comments to be contained in the Phase 4 response were formally agreed in Cabinet meetings of the Councils, on 11March 2019 by Suffolk Coastal District Council’s Cabinet and on 12 March by Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet.
- Suffolk Coastal District Council’s Cabinet report on East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms
The Councils expanded on the headline comments provided within the Cabinet reports to create the formal Phase 4 response to Scottish Power Renewables two projects.
Scottish Power Renewables submitted their applications for East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two wind farms to the Planning Inspectorate on 25 October 2019. The Planning Inspectorate accepted the applications on 22 November 2019. A link to the relevant pages on the National Infrastructure Planning website have been provided below. All the documentation associated with the applications and relevant updates regarding to the stage of the Development Consent Order process are available using the links.
- National Infrastructure Planning pages on East Anglia ONE North Offshore Windfarm
- National Infrastructure Planning pages on East Anglia TWO Offshore Windfarm
A draft Relevant Representation and early draft Local Impact Report were formally agreed in the Cabinet meeting on 7 January 2020 by East Suffolk Council’s Cabinet. The Relevant Representation provides a summary of the Council’s current position on the projects and the Local Impact Report sets out an objective assessment of the predicted impacts of the projects.
A joint letter, signed by the Leaders of the District and County Councils has been sent to the Secretaries of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Housing, Communities and Local Government, having regard to all energy projects in the East Suffolk locality.
- Response from Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2018.06.11
- Follow up response from Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2018.07.30
- Thank you to Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2018.07.30
- Letter to Energy Companies 2018.08.03
- Letter from Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2018.09.03
- Follow on letter to Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 2018.11.29
- Response from Claire Perry MP received 2019.01.14
- Ministerial letter to Greg Clark MP 2019.03.29
- Response from Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2019.04.23
- Letter to officials from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy following response from Rt Hon Claire Perry MP 2019.08.08
In October 2019 Rt Hon Therese Coffey MP Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions and MP for Suffolk Coastal constituency organised a meeting with Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP Minister of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which was attended by representatives from East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council to discuss the cumulative impacts of the energy projects on East Suffolk 2019.10.16.
In addition the following letters have also been written to Ministers in relation to the current and future energy projects being faced by Suffolk and Norfolk.
- Letter to Ministers regarding Lowestoft Tidal Flood Barrier and how the delivery of the scheme has been impacted by the growth of offshore wind energy 2020.01.06
- Joint letter to Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from East Suffolk Council and North Norfolk District Council 2020.01.20
In February 2020 Rt Hon Therese Coffey MP organised a further meeting with Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP which was also attended by representatives from East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council to continue discussions regarding the issues faced by the cumulative impacts of the energy projects.
The Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy organised a ‘Teach In’ which was attended by various stakeholders involved in the delivery of energy projects including National Grid both as Systems Operator and Transmission Owner, Ofgem, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Planning Inspectorate, Environment Agency, Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council. During this meeting all the stakeholders recognised and acknowledged that the current system and processes for delivering new energy is not fit for purpose, an issue which will only be exacerbated in the coming years as we strive to deliver the necessary capacity to meet our net zero targets. Following this meeting East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council wrote jointly to the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy setting out the key next steps required.
- Letter to The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council 2020.03.09
- Response from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP received 2020.03.27
Subsequent to the stakeholder meeting with Government a response was received from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP in relation to our joint letter with North Norfolk District Council sent in January 2020. The response acknowledged that the letter from the Councils raised important questions around how we connect new offshore projects and again recognised the need for a more coordinated approach for offshore transmission.
The Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng announced on 15 July 2020 the Offshore Transmission Network Review and published the Terms of Reference for this work.
This review is welcomed, comprising an acknowledgement that the current approach to designing and building offshore transmission is inappropriate considering the target of achieving net zero. Our continued engagement with Government and the Minister has helped to bring about this review, there is now greater recognition and understanding regarding the detrimental impacts faced by local communities and the environment as a result of the current regime. East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council have written in response to the publication of the Terms of Reference for the Offshore Transmission Network Review seeking further clarifications and requesting that the review strive to achieve an ambitious model for connecting energy infrastructure.
- Letter to Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP from East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council 05.08.2020
- Response from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP received 08.09.2020
- Legal Opinion – Implications of BEIS Offshore Transmission Network Review for the East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two applications for development consent.
The Councils have also responded to the publication of an open letter from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Ofgem in relation to the Offshore Transmission Network Review and barriers to coordination.
- Letter to BEIS and Ofgem from East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council 24.09.2020
- Response from Offshore Transmission Network Review team at BEIS 22.10.2020
More information about the Offshore Transmission Network Review.
As part of the Offshore Transmission Network Review, National Grid Electricity Systems Operator has established their Offshore Coordination Project which will assess the most beneficial approaches to offshore networks in order to deliver better outcomes for consumers and coastal communities. As a first step, the project has set out the costs and benefits of different, conceptual integrated offshore network designs. In a response to a consultation on this work held during October 2020, the Councils have provided the below joint response.
- The Councils response to NG-ESO Offshore Coordination Project consultation
- National Grid Offshore Coordination Project
On the 5th November 2020, in an adjournment debate in the House of Commons MPs from Suffolk and Norfolk called on the Minister of State the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, to ensure that proposals for enabling legislation to allow offshore coordinated connections was set out in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech. The Councils have written to the Minister to support this call.
To contact the Council's Planners, email our Development Management Team with the reference "East Anglia 1 North and 2 Offshore Windfarms".