Timely News For Grid Connections
National Grid ESO has issued exciting and timely news to tackle the bottleneck of the connections to the transmission grid. We highlighted this last month in our support for the open letter given by Regen to Nick Winser.
Power Initiatives has over 200MW in pre-construction stage currently, with some grid connection dates for those projects quoted as far out as 2028. This critical ESO initiative will get the projects through when the UK needs them most.
Removal of Stalled Projects
The Electricity System Operator (ESO) has identified a new approach to managing connections to the transmission grid. It involves the removal of stalled projects already on the register so it can speed up new projects by enabling quicker connections.
Connection timescales to the national electricity transmission network is managed on the Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) register.
Connections Amnesty
ESO has granted an amnesty to projects on the register unlikely to reach delivery can remove their project from the register at no cost or for a reduced fee. The amnesty will run from 1 October to 30 November 2022.
Removal of such projects will expedite a faster connection for new projects, including renewables such as Solar, Wind and Battery storage, to support the delivery of a net zero electricity network by 2035.
Julian Leslie, ESO head of networks at National Grid ESO, said
“We’re here to help build a future system that is clean, reliable and fair. We realise that to deliver net zero, we need to free up space on the connections register so that new low carbon projects can connect much more quickly”
ROI
This initiative should free a route to expedite our battery storage projects to operational capacity by easing the connections stumbling block, realising quicker ROI for investors and developers alike.
Gareth Woodberry, Managing Director of Power Initiatives, said of ESO’s announcement
“A comprehensive package of measures will be necessary to fully realise the ambition of freeing up capacity on our electricity network and accelerating connection dates for new renewable assets.
Most likely this will require a blend of network policy changes, capacity clawbacks and accelerated investment in new infrastructure.
On that basis, this news from the ESO represents a good first step in unlocking capacity at transmission level, which should in turn yield positive results for many of our distribution level connected projects.”
