Over the past few years, pollution legislation has placed tighter and tighter demands on the way operators produce power. In 1996 we saw the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive. Enforced by the European Commission this includes measures to prevent or reduce emissions in the air, water and land. The year 2000 saw the UK's Environment Agency launching the Pollution Prevent and Control (PPC) regulations. These were created to implement the IPPC directive across the UK, and replaced existing Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regulations The main thrust of these regulations is to move operators towards greater environmental sustainability and the deadline is March 2006. By this time, operators of existing combustion plants with a rated thermal input of 50MWth or more, as well as some waste-fired plants of at least 3MWth, have to apply for the PPC licence.