Engagement on Draft Guidance for Electricity Generating Combustion Plant

Overview

Request for feedback on Draft Guidance for new electricity generating activity under EASR

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, protecting and improving Scotland’s environment. 

In 2018, Scottish Government brought in the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (EASR) for the regulation of water, waste management, and industrial activities under a common framework. Following consultation in 2025 these regulations were extended to include ‘new activities’.  

Combustion plant (or plants) that generate electricity aggregating to 1 MW thermal input or more at one location were not previously included in environmental regulation but can have a significant impact on air quality. So, a new activity to extend EASR to these aggregated generators was added, this new activity is described in EASR Schedule 26 Part 3 Chapter 1 as:

• burning any fuel in combustion appliances generating electricity on the same site with an aggregated total rated thermal input of 1 MW

This activity has a ‘sunrise date’ of 1 January 2029; this means that it will not be regulated by SEPA until this date. 

We have previously consulted on the type of authorisation and standard conditions which will be applied to all activities in EASR including the new aggregated generators activity.  As a result, activities meeting the aggregated generators definition will require a registration level authorisation from SEPA and will be subject to the standard conditions, details of which are available on the SEPA website.  These standard conditions may be amended depending on the response to this engagement.

Any combustion plant that has a thermal input of equal to or greater than 1 MW that also produces electricity, will have additional technical requirements, these are described in this draft guidance, and will be included in their medium combustion plant authorisation from 1 January 2029. Authorisations that were issued before this date must be varied to include the new requirements.  

We are now seeking further engagement on this draft guidance attached to support the operators of electricity generating combustion plant which will require authorisation under EASR

This guidance applies to the combustion of fuel in a combustion plant with a thermal input greater than 1 MW that generates electricity, or an installation where the aggregate thermal input of all electricity generating combustion plants is greater than 1MW.

It explains how operators are expected to control emissions from their electricity generating activity. 

In some circumstances generators which meet the activity definitions for combustion of fuel to generate electricity may be exempt from requiring authorisation.  These exceptions are outlined in the guidance.

How to respond

You can respond to this engagement process directly to the following email industrialactivitiespolicy@sepa.org.uk

Or you can respond online by clicking "I agree" at the bottom of this page. Responses should be submitted to us by 8 December. 

If you wish to respond another way, please contact us using our online contact form or by phone: 0300 099 6699 and we’ll arrange for an Officer to call you back.

Handling your response

We would like to know if you are happy for your response to be made public. If you ask for your response not to be published, it will be regarded as confidential and treated in accordance with our published Privacy Policy.

Why your views matter

As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, our purpose is to protect, improve Scotland’s environment in ways that as far as possible also create health and well-being benefits, and sustainable economic growth.

Our Corporate Plan sets our strategic agenda and our Annual Operating Plan implements our priorities. In delivering these priorities we engage with those who have an interest in and are impacted by our regulations and duties. One way we engage is through consultations. The feedback we receive through our consultations helps us to understand what matters most to those that are interested and affected by our work and helps to shape how we implement our duties. After the consultation closes we’ll take time to consider responses before sharing an update with you through the “we asked, you said, we did” section of our consultation website.