UK Networks Association sets out industry action plan for grid capacity

Energy Networks Association (ENA) in the UK has set out an industry action plan to release enough grid capacity in the next year to decarbonise Great Britain’s power grid.

With an additional 112GW of capacity already installed, the 139GW this action plan delivers exceeds the 225GW needed to decarbonise the grid, states ENA.

The action plan report, Rising to Britain’s Net Zero Challenge: Our fairer and faster connections action plan, confirms that thanks to the pace of progress seen since the start of 2023, nearly 50GW of additional capacity is already available to customers.

The report explains six steps in the energy networks’ action plan, four of which have been under way since the start of the year and two that are new. 

The four steps that already under way include: 

1. Release up to 90GW of capacity by cleaning up the queue and actively managing a “first ready, first connected” process. 
2. Accelerate up to 70GW of applications by allowing some applicants to connect faster, before enabling works are completed.
3. Release nearly 3GW of capacity by treating storage projects, which are increasing faster than any other technology – up 5,930% from 2019-2023, differently. Network operators are changing the modelling and assumptions for storage projects at both transmission and distribution level, to better align with actual usage patterns.
4. Release 46GW of capacity by making network planning processes more coordinated and realistic. Improved construction planning assumptions, and a reformed transmission connections framework will allow for a more efficient process that is not hindered by high application volumes and customer attrition from the queue.

   The two additional steps that complete the action plan are: 

5. Strengthen and tighten the application process by making the process more discerning – providing more information to the market, requesting more data from applicants and standardising pre-application engagement.
6. Further improve coordination between transmission and distribution operators, including reviewing the threshold for referral for transmission impacts, improving transmission to distribution data exchanges and reforming transmission asset charging methodologies for distribution customers.

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These six steps build on reforms that are already under way across the industry including the ESO’s Five Point Plan, Ofgem’s initiative to reform connections rules and ENA’s Strategic Connections Group Action Plan announced earlier in the year. 

Through the ENA, the report calls on the need for planning, land rights and consenting reforms to speed up the building of new infrastructure. The report also calls on government and Ofgem to work with industry to make improvements to how ‘the queue’ is accessed and prioritised.

Network operators currently have an obligation to offer connection agreements to any project, regardless of technology or the project’s viability. 

Lawrence Slade, ENA chief executive, commented on the grid capacity action plan in a release:  “We need to pull out all the stops to accelerate and improve grid connections and this plan gets us the capacity we need in just one more year to decarbonise the grid.

“The industry action plan we’ve set out today includes new ways to strengthen and tighten up the application process for connections to ensure only projects with a realistic chance of coming to fruition are approved, as well as a redoubling of efforts to improve coordination between transmission and distribution operators which we know will be more streamlined and ultimately, fairer for customers.

“Uptake of the benefits outlined by ENA will depend on the ability of the market to progress projects, including the number of projects which are in the current queue but turn out to be not viable. These so-called ‘zombie projects’ take up valuable capacity in the queue which could be released for other projects which are viable and ready to connect.”