The United Kingdom has ambitious green energy targets, including clean power by 2030 [1] and Net Zero by 2050 [2]. This requires the development of significantly more renewable energy projects. Obtaining permission to do this is challenging in myriad ways, but once permission is granted, projects need to join the queue for a grid connection. And it’s a long queue, exceeding 10 years! This means a project joining the queue now may have to wait until the late 2030s before a connection is available.
Figure 1: A pylon line in the UK viewed along the cables. [6]
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are projects in the queue that cannot be legally removed [3], even though they don’t have funding and, as such, cannot be realised yet. This is not a new problem, and a couple of years ago Ofgem already called the situation unacceptable, indicating it was looking at ways to ensure projects that were ready to go were not held up by those that were not.
Sadly, this hasn’t happened, and now the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has announced a “short pause”, which is to say it is blocking new electricity projects from joining the queue as of 29 January 2025. The intention here appears to be a reordering of the queue, again with the goal of ensuring projects that are ready to go are not unduly delayed from becoming operational. There will now be designated windows within applications can be made.
NESO
NESO was created as a result of the UK’s 2023 Energy Act [4]. They were previously the Electricity System Operator. Their raison d’être is “making sure that Great Britain has the essential energy it needs by ensuring supply meets demand every second of every day”.
Action Plan
NESO has proposed something called a Connection and Use of System Code modification, which would introduce a Progression Commitment Fee as part of plans to improve the connection queue situation. This plan is set out on their website and is currently under review by Ofgem [5].
Prognosis
The UK’s excessive connection queue has been a damper on the country’s renewable energy rollout for some time. Previous attempts to tackle it have not yet solved the issue, it remains to be seen if these latest plans succeed in streamlining the process.
Pager Power
Pager Power has been supporting renewable energy developers in they UK and internationally for over 20 years. Our main specialisations are overcoming barriers to consent for wind energy, solar energy and building developments. For more information on what we do, please visit our website or get in touch.
References
[1] Multiple Authors (December 2024), Analysis: How the UK plans to reach clean power by 2030 (link), Carbon Brief, last accessed February 2025.
[2] House of Commons Library (September 2024), The UK’s plans and progress to reach net zero by 2050 (link), UK Parliament, last accessed February 2025.
[3] Ambrose, J (January 2025), Great Britain’s energy grid operator closes connection queue (link), The Guardian, last accessed February 2025
[4] NESO website (undated), link, last accessed February 2025
[5] NESO (February 2025), New tool to drive connections queue progress proposed (link), NESO website, last accessed February 2025
[6] Chris Barker (August 2021) on Unplash.com. Last accessed on 13th February 2025. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/green-trees-and-plants-under-blue-sky-during-daytime-KpbFtSJg8Kg
