Agenda item

Resolved:

(1)  The formation and work of the Local Area Energy Plan Co-ordination Group was welcomed.

(2)  The proposed regional approach to Local Area Energy Planning in the West Midlands was endorsed.

(3)  That the region will likely need to feed into further OfGEM consultations later this year, on the geography of the future Regional Energy Strategic Planning function for the Midlands area and how the region wishes to organise itself to feed into a future model of Regional Energy Strategic Planning was noted.

The board considered a report and received a presentation from the Director of Energy Capital at the WMCA to update on the activity and findings of their local authority officers working collaboratively through the West Midlands Local Area Energy Plan Co-ordination Group and to understand how this was being used to shape future work and national energy policy.

The Local Area Energy Plan Co-ordination Group was established under the guise of Project PRIDE, an innovation project, funded by OfGEM which was looking at two things:

·        how to provide the necessary information needed to enable effective energy; and

·       what governance structures were needed to achieve effective energy planning.

The co-ordination group was considering how the West Midlands ensured it worked effectively together to undertake local area energy planning and to use this as a foundation to feed into regional energy planning, to ensure that investment would be appropriately channelled into energy infrastructure to support the region’s growth and decarbonisation objectives.  The co-ordination group was trialling a digital spatial mapping tool known as LAEP +, to bring together all of the elements that were needed to enable effective energy infrastructure planning.

Currently OfGEM were undertaking the detailed design phase of development of the Regional Energy Strategic Planning.  This meant that they were working with stakeholders to gather information to help them shape what the Regional Energy Strategic Planning would do, how they would be governed and what level of authority and power they would have.  Energy Capital was feeding into this process, taking learning and insight from the Local Area Energy Planning Co-ordination Group and other governance structures established as part of the PRIDE project and sharing them with OfGEM.  In the summer, OfGEM, would formally consult on the details of the Regional Energy Strategic Planning design and how local authorities would be expected to engage with it.  Energy Capital would keep officers and members abreast of the issues and opportunities associated with this as they emerge and ensure the region was well placed to respond to the consultation later in the summer.

Members of the board provided positive feedback of the digital spatial mapping tool used by local authority officers. 

Councillor Mahmood noted that Birmingham City Council was very supportive of the programme and were actively participating in both the co-ordination and subgroup, however Birmingham was not one of the initial cohort authorities with access to the tool and would appreciate an action plan with which the council could use the tool to reference and identify constraints and opportunities.  The Director of Energy Capital acknowledged the comment from Councillor Mahmood and noted due to the small funding pot and size of Birmingham was not possible without taking the majority of all of the funding, however gave assurance that Energy Capital was very keen to continue to work with Birmingham officers to ensure exploration of all potential funding opportunities.         

In response to Councillor Hughes who commented on the social value and resource provision from major energy companies to support local authorities in the Local Area Energy Planning Co-ordination Group work, the Director of Energy Capital noted one of the benefits of the Energy Capital Partnership being a slightly different model to other regions was the ability to work closely with the private sector who were all very keen to participate and would look to explore the social value element more with them.               

Resolved:

(1)  The formation and work of the Local Area Energy Plan Co-ordination Group be welcomed.

(2)  The proposed regional approach to Local Area Energy Planning in the West Midlands be endorsed.

(3)  That the region will likely need to feed into further OfGEM consultations later this year, on the geography of the future Regional Energy Strategic Planning function for the Midlands area and how the region wishes to organise itself to feed into a future model of Regional Energy Strategic Planning be noted.