Hydropower
Planning & Regulation

Hydropower planning permission will be required from the Local Authority and permission to grid-connect the system to the local electrical distribution network. Although these consents are more straightforward to obtain than the EA/SEPA consents, they still require a great deal of specialist hydropower knowledge. Renewables First has more experience of obtaining hydropower planning permission than any other UK hydro company. Visit our planning page for more information

The electrical connection is often overlooked but is vitally important; it doesn’t matter how good a hydropower site is if the energy generated cannot be exported into the distribution network.

Permission to grid connect must therefore be secured early during any project

Visit our Grid Connection page for more information

All small hydro and micro hydro systems must have hydro licensing issued by the environmental regulator, which is the Environment Agency (EA) in England and Wales, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in Scotland and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in Northern Ireland.

The process to obtain the licenses is a quite bureaucratic, particularly when dealing with the EA, and takes on average nine months for a typical site.

As well as a licence to use the water for the operation of the hydro system you will also need permission to do ‘work in the river’ while the system is constructed. This includes agreement on how works will be conducted to make sure the riverine environment is protected and also checks that all permanent structures and temporary works (i.e. coffer dams etc.) do not increase flood risk.

Planning permission will be required for any new structures, though generally this is simpler to obtain than the EA consents because hydropower systems are visually relatively unobtrusive. On technical and ecological matters the local authority generally defers to the environmental regulator, so provided your EA / SEPA / NIEA consents are all in order the planning consent should be forthcoming. It can be more complicated if the hydro system is integrated into a historic building, but even then this is normally possible in a sympathetic way which is acceptable to Conservation Officers.

Renewables First has over a decade of experience of securing environmental and planning consents for hydropower systems.  More details are provided here.

Can I get fish-friendly hydro turbines and will I need a fish pass? Yes and maybe.

Historically it would have been possible for a poorly designed hydropower system to have a negative impact on fisheries, but the regulatory framework which governs hydropower licensing nowadays is quite rightly highly protective of fish, and provided the various good practice design guidance is followed hydro systems are at worst benign and at best have a positive impact of fisheries.

If a proposed hydro site is located on a river frequented by migratory fish you will almost certainly have to install a new, or upgrade the existing, fish pass.

The issues for fisheries are intake screening design and fish bypasses, fish passes and flows in parts of a river depleted of flow. All of these issues are highly regulated to ensure no negative impact on fisheries. In the case of fish passage, hydro projects often result in new or improved fish passage facilities being installed, and these fish passes are often much more effective because of the improved attractant flows towards the fish pass which result from co-locating it with the hydro system.

Renewables First always designs systems to be fish-friendly and where possible we aim to improve fish passage beyond the pre-hydro project situation. We have a lot of experience of designing all types of fish pass, fish surveys and everything to do with fish and hydropower.

On the subject of fish and hydropower you may come across the misinformation and misrepresentation of facts peddled by the Angling Trust. It is not known why the Angling Trust has chosen to adopt such a negative position in regard to hydropower and fisheries, but thankfully their opinions do not carry much weight with the environmental regulators. Unfortunately some anglers have only read the Angling Trust’s views on hydropower and adopt these as their own, which can cause problems. Over time this problem will diminish as hydropower gets more common and more anglers learn of the positive benefits to fisheries from hydropower.