Tuesday 2nd of October 2018 | Posted In: Comply, Generate

The Medium Combustion Plant Directive – are you affected?

Since our last blog (16th August 2018), guidance has been published and more information has come to light on the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD).  I have spent the last couple of weeks piecing together the many strands, to identify routes to compliance for our customers.

The Medium Combustion Plant Directive will affect sites that have combustion equipment that is greater than 1 MW rated thermal input and bounded in size by the Large Combustion Plant directive at 50MW. There are two important categories of equipment:

  1. Medium Combustion Plants (MCP)
  2. Specified Generators

The date by which an environmental permit is required will vary according to plant type, size and age.

From 20 December, all new and upgraded MCPs will require a permit immediately, and will have to comply with emission limits; existing plant has time to catch up (2024 for plants over 5MW, and 2029 for smaller ones).

Specified Generators, meanwhile, have until New Year’s Day 2019 to comply; although units that operated before December 2016, or entered Capacity Agreements during 2014/15, and do not have a Capacity Market contract from the auctions in late 2017 onwards, will have until October 2019; or 2025, for units with lower emissions or short operating hours; sub-5MW units have until 2030.

This EU Directive has already made it into UK Law, and so Britain’s exit from the EU will not alter your need to comply.

The important part of the compliance is emission limits, which will depend on the nature of your plant and where it is sited, its proximity to habitations, busy roads, sites of special scientific interest, air quality management areas, and so on. There are sets of Standard Rules which could make life much easier for you; if not, you must apply for a bespoke permit from the Regulator, who will consider all the above information.

So the first step is to identify your permit deadline, which may not be for years, but maybe three or four months away; in that case, we are here to guide you through the process of applying. Give us a call on 024 7669 8887.