Applying for a change to an installation requiring approval

If you wish to make a change to an installation, you must notify the competent authority or obtain approval first.

If you wish to make a change to the location, nature or operation of an installation that requires a permit, you must notify the competent authority before starting the change.

The competent authority will confirm your notification and decide whether your project requires a permit and/or which documents you may need to submit. This also applies to accident-relevant changes or if you intend to cease operations.

Both the notification procedure and the approval procedure require a written or electronic notification. The following documents must be enclosed:

• Required drawings, plans, expert opinions
• explanations and
• other documents (if necessary, ask the competent authority).

Electronic immission control application with ELiA

ELiA stands for "electronic immission control application" and is an IT solution for applying for approval of a plant in accordance with the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG).

You or the engineering firms you commission can use it to create the very extensive application electronically and send it to the approval authority in encrypted form in future.

ELiA is currently used in the following federal states: Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.

Notes:

Before completing the permit application, please make use of the possibility of a consultation with the permit authority responsible for you (State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas of Schleswig-Holstein).

ELiA offers a simply structured interface that is clearly organized according to individual forms and supports you with help, sample applications, default settings, key tables and plausibility checks. Saving is possible at any stage of processing. The forms must be processed in sequence, as there are dependencies between them.

Notes on dispatch:

a) Postal dispatch on a data carrier

• You can send the application file with all attachments to the approval authority on CD, DVD or USB stick.

b) Electronic dispatch as a ZIP file using a secure mailbox (encrypted, possibly signed, automatic)

• You must enclose the necessary documents with the notification, insofar as these may be required to check whether the project requires approval.
• If, in the opinion of the competent authority, approval is required, an approval procedure in accordance with § 10 BImSchG must be carried out.
• Approval is not required if the adverse effects caused by the change are obviously minor.

• Objection
• Complaint

Changes to the location, type or operation of an installation requiring a permit must be notified to the competent authority in writing or electronically at least one month before the change is to begin, unless a permit is applied for.

• You must notify the competent authority of the planned change using the ELIA web application or in writing.
• You enclose the necessary documents with the notification, insofar as these may be required to check whether the project requires approval.
• The competent authority will immediately confirm receipt of the notification and the attached documents in writing or electronically; in the case of an electronic notification, it may also request additional copies and the submission of the documents to be attached to the notification in written form.
• Upon receipt of the notification, the competent authority will inform you without delay which additional documents it requires to assess the prerequisites.
• If necessary, the competent authority will decide that your project requires a permit. The authority will inform you of its decision within one month
• You may implement the change as soon as the competent authority informs you that the change does not require approval or the competent authority has not issued a statement one month after the notification documents are complete.
• In the case of an incident-relevant change, you may only make the change if the competent authority informs you that no approval is required.

at least one month before the change is implemented

The ELiA desktop application is available to you free of charge. Please ask the responsible office about the possible costs of the procedure.

Notification is only required if the change may have an impact on the objects of protection specified in Section 1 of the Federal Immission Control Act.