Draft Guidance on Grid Scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Update on the consultation

Grid scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are a fundamental part of the UK’s move toward a sustainable energy system.

In Summer 2024, NFCC issued a consultation to seek views from fire and rescue services on a revised guidance for fire and rescue services on BESS.

The draft guidance that we consulted on will supersede and replace the first iteration of the BESS guidance document that was published in 2023.

We are currently reviewing a high number of consultation responses and anticipate that the new revised version of the BESS guidance will be published in 2025.

In the meantime, while the publication of the revised NFCC guidance is awaited, the 2023 version of the BESS guidance remains current.

This guidance is intended for use of fire and rescue services to support them in providing consistent evidence-based contributions to the Local Authority BESS planning process. It should be noted that fire and rescue services are not statutory consultees in the BESS planning process under the Town and Planning Act 2010. However, NFCC does advise in its guidance that it is best practice for safety measures and risk mitigation measures to be developed in collaboration with the local fire and rescue service.

For more information regarding planning applications for BESS in your area, please contact your Local Council or access the Planning Portal if you wish to make a planning application.

You may also wish to refer to the GOV.UK guidance published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Grid scale electrical energy storage systems: health and safety.

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Original consultation communication

Grid scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are a fundamental part of the UK’s move toward a sustainable energy system. This guidance supersedes and seeks to build on the original guidance document that was published in 2023 (Version 1). The guidance is based upon a range of supporting materials including academic research, national and international standards, case studies, and industry guidance. The content of this guidance is the result of analysis of that supporting material, with subsequent professional judgement applied.

This document has been produced for the use of Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) and Local Authority Planners to support community and firefighter safety. In referring to this guidance, NFCC seeks to support FRS to ensure they are aware of the location of all grid scale BESS in their area. This is to allow for effective operational pre-planning to take place, ensuring that FRS requirements are proportionate to the hazard and risk whilst not being overly burdensome to the developer of the BESS installation. It is hoped that the guidance will promote consistency of approach across FRS.

We recommend that you thoroughly read the document before completing your review. The document has been submitted as a Word document with line numbers, please indicate the appropriate line numbers in your response.  Please provide sufficient detail in your comments for us to make appropriate amendments.

If you would like to prepare your response, you can review the questions in advance. There is also a save and continue function that can be used throughout the consultation so that you can return to your response later and pick up where you left off.

The link to the survey is here.

This survey will close end of the day Thursday 22 August 2024. If you have any questions, please contact the NFCC Policy team.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this consultation.