Updated 23rd June 2023
Back in September 2019 Mid Suffolk District Council planning officers (the officers, not the elected Councillors) approved a 49.9MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) under delegated powers for construction next to Bramford Substation. It was approved under application DC/19/03008 on 23rd September 2019.
In December 2021 a non-material amendment was submitted, and approved, increasing this to 57MW.
Recently EDF Renewables (who now own Pivot Power) sent out the below update about the site to some of those who were involved during the consultation back in 2019. If you didn’t receive the update you weren’t the only ones.
We all know it is a point of issue with local residents when a developer spells a place name wrong. However, given the significant number of concerns from residents regarding battery fires in other nearby proposed BESS applications, and against EDF’s own Bramford Tye Solar Farm application, calling Burstall as Burnstall is particularly inconsiderate.
But there are also concerns about the misleading figures used by EDF.
Assuming the 57MW BESS is still based on the original 1 hour charge/discharge applied for (paragraph 7.8.1 of the Design and Access Statement), there is zero loss of power during the charge and discharge (which is impossible), and exporting once per day over 356 days (which is impossible due to maintenance requirements) equals 20,805MWh per year total. (57MW x 1 hour x 365 days). They claim this will power 100,000 homes, but that is only 0.208MWh per home, or 208kWh. Far short of most peoples annual electricity usage!
And then for the 49.9MW solar, assuming this is the AC export capacity (which it shouldn’t be under current legislation), and the typical 11% efficiency for solar, then this is 48,084MWh per year total. (365 days x 24 hours x 49.9MW x 11%) They claim this will supply 14,500 homes, which would be 3.3161MWh per home. This is a more realistic figure for the average household usage. Yet so very different to the claim above. An error that should have been obvious to EDF Renewables.
Another concern is the length of time for construction. In the original application they stated construction would last 3-5 months (paragraphs 7.13.3 and 7.13.5 of the Design and Access Statement). Assuming they start on 30th June 2023 and finish on 1st February 2024, this is still 7 full months of construction work. Quite a bit longer than the understanding upon which planning was granted.
However, what is more concerning is that they plan to being construction in June 2023. Why is this worrying?
Back in the day when planning permission was granted there was no expiry date. However, this caused problems with granting permission and developments never starting. So a 5 year cut-off period was introduced in 1968 where meaningful construction had to have begun by, or the permission expired and any construction work became unlawful. In 2009 this was reduced to the current 3 years.
So if permission was approved on 23rd September 2019, then permission EXPIRED on 23rd September 2022. Over 7 months ago.
We have already started discussing this expiry with the Parish Councils, with the intention of raising this serious concern with Mid Suffolk District Council.
UPDATE: After discussions and visiting the site it turns out that EDF had at some point already started construction work, because the access is complete. Unfortunately, this means the planning permission did not expire.
In the meantime, if you missed receiving the update you can read it below…