Current monitoring activity at the local level

Current monitoring activity

There is significant variation in the level of monitoring of renewable energy activity undertaken by different local authorities in the south west. Most have no formal data monitoring system set up to identify renewable energy projects. Instead, many reply on a variety of informal networks including word of mouth, attendance at local energy groups and contact with development management officers.

The need for monitoring at the local level

There are three main reasons why you need to monitor renewable energy projects within your local authority area:

1) To provide a mechanism for reviewing the success or otherwise of your renewable energy polices in local development frameworks. See Reviewing Policies and Targets.

2) To meet your obligations under the revised set of National Core Output Indicators (NCOIs) to report on core output indicator E3: Renewable Energy Generation – see Monitoring Activity at Regional Level for more detail. At present, many local authorities in the south west use the data gathered by the Regen SW Survey of Renewable Energy projects to report on this indicator.

3) To provide information on the planning and commissioning status of renewable energy applications on a quarterly basis to the Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) run on behalf of DECC by AEA Technology. see Monitoring Activity at National Level for more detail


In addition, the Government is proposing to introduce a new national indicator for renewable energy deployment which is expected to be introduced in the next spending round. You and your local strategic partnership (where this exists) are expected to choose up to 35 performance benchmarks from a pool of 198 national priorities/ indicators and your performance is assessed solely on this basis by the Government.