Energy Incident Register

How a planning evidence pack is made and checked

Last updated 8 October 2026.

A planning evidence pack sets out the incidents on the register that bear on one project, with the planning decisions around it and the fire service guidance consultees cite. This page says how it is made, how it is checked, and what to do if something needs changing. About the pack and the price.

1. One fixed, dated file

A bought pack is made once, when the payment goes through, and kept. The link in the email always returns the same file. Each pack carries a reference (for example EIR-PACK-0123) and the date its data was taken from the register, on the cover and at the foot of every page. It comes as a web page, a PDF and a Word file, and all three say the same thing. A change makes a new version with its own number; earlier versions are never altered and stay at the same link.

2. How it is made

  1. The site point. The pack is measured from the map point of the project's planning record when the buyer picks one on the order form. Otherwise it uses a UK postcode or a UK place name from the Ordnance Survey open place names, never a place abroad with the same name. The pack says which was used.
  2. Grid-scale first. An entry counts as grid-scale unless its reporting describes a home, farm or business battery, a concern where nothing failed, or an event that was not a battery failure. Those are listed apart, in their own table, and never mixed into the counts.
  3. Distances. A straight line from the site point to each entry's map point, which is a town or a site, never a private address. Entries are found by map point only, never by matching words in the text.
  4. Planning decisions nearby. Sites of the same technology within 40 km where an application was refused, withdrawn or taken to appeal, from the government's Renewable Energy Planning Database (Open Government Licence v3.0), the project's own council first. Each site is one row: applications are grouped as one site when they are in the same council and their site names or addresses match, or they share a map point and a distinctive name, so a refused scheme sent in again is shown once with its full history. The final outcome (for example Refused, Withdrawn, Granted on appeal, Appeal pending) is that of the latest application. Schemes under 1 MW are listed apart, and schemes abandoned without a decision are named but not counted. The neighbouring councils are taken to be the councils with a scheme in that radius. Where a council's own record shows a later decision, the register's correction is used and marked.
  5. Lessons. Every UK grid-scale incident's lessons come first, with no limit, so a major UK incident such as the 2020 Liverpool fire is always covered. Major grid-scale incidents abroad follow, up to 40 lessons in all. No home battery lessons are used.
  6. Notes against the NFCC guidance. Each UK grid-scale incident has a short note: what the reporting says, and the passages of the guidance it bears on, quoted word for word with a link. See section 5.

3. The desk check

The EIR editorial desk checks every bought pack within 2 working days (Monday to Friday) of the order. The desk works through this list for each pack:

  1. The site point and planning authority match the planning record, or the details the buyer gave.
  2. Each UK incident is a separate event, not one fire written twice, and sits in the right table: grid-scale sites in the main table, home, farm and business batteries apart.
  3. Each UK grid-scale incident has a note, and every quoted passage matches the NFCC text at the link given.
  4. The three nearest planning decisions match the council's own planning record.
  5. The distances to the nearest incidents look right on a map.
  6. Nothing in the pack comes from a confidential submission or names a private person.

Until the check is done the pack's cover says "Awaiting desk review". When it is done, the desk issues the checked pack as a new version that says "Checked by the EIR editorial desk" with the date, and emails the link. The checked version uses the same figures as the version checked. If a check fails, the desk corrects the entry or the inputs first, and the new version says what changed.

4. A change or a new version, free

If anything in a pack needs changing (the site point, the size, another technology, a different planning record), reply to the email that came with it, or write to editor@energyincidentregister.com with the pack reference. The desk makes a new version at no charge within 2 working days (Monday to Friday) and sends the link. A new version made on request uses the register as it is on that day, and says so on its cover.

5. How the NFCC guidance is quoted

The notes quote the National Fire Chiefs Council guidance word for word and give the section heading. The current edition is NFCC, Grid scale energy storage system planning: Guidance for fire and rescue services, approved for publication in December 2025, replacing the first edition. Many consultee responses still quote the first edition, Version 1.0 of November 2022, so its figures are given too and marked as first edition. NFCC no longer publishes the first edition on its own site; the pack links to the copy published by Avon Fire and Rescue Service. The guidance is advice to fire services, not law, and most UK sites in the register were built before the current edition. A note says what a passage bears on; it never says a site broke the guidance. The quotes are checked against the NFCC page as part of each desk check.

6. Limits

7. The example

The example pack is for a made-up 50 MW project in Lincolnshire. It shows how every section looks, with only the first rows of each table and one incident note in full.