NGET does not contract directly with the customer. The NESO will contract with us to build the connection and any related works. We will still be in regular touch with you on the progress of your connection, as well as being fundamental to your initial offer through the system studies we conduct. We will also conduct any studies needed if a modification application is made to your connection.

The NESO contracts with you directly as the connecting customer. You will submit your application to the NESO, and they will send it through to NGET for assessment once they have conducted their necessary checks. They will also manage your contract should any changes need to be made. They will have regular contact with both NGET and you to keep track of your connection.

Your connection capacity will be declared in two forms. The first is your Connection Entry Capacity (CEC), this is the maximum potential output of your asset onto the National Electricity Transmission System (NETS). The second is your Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC). The TEC is the amount you will export onto the NETS as a generator. CEC is often set higher than TEC to allow for changes over years in outputs without needing to adapt or modify infrastructure.

The connection registers will give you an idea of how many current connections exist and at what capacity. There are a variety of connection registers available such as the Transmission Entry Capacity Register and the Interconnector Register on the NESO website.

We advise that you review the connection register appropriate to your connection type to help inform you of what other connections to the National Electricity Transmission System are currently ongoing. These connection registers could help inform you of where, or when you want to connect.

The industry codes underpin the electricity and gas wholesale and retail markets. Market participants are required to comply with the industry codes in accordance with the conditions of their licence. The NESO administers four of these codes. They are the CUSC, Grid Code, STC and SQSS.  

For more information on these codes, visit here: https://www.neso.energy/industry-information/codes/code-changes-beginners-guide

The Security and Quality of Supply Standard (SQSS), are the minimum design standard used to plan the transmission system. These standards ensure that any connection or system upgrades are to a high quality, and preserve the safety and reliability of the transmission system.

Your project’s timeline is unique as it is dependent on its location, the design selected, and what other projects are taking place in the area.

Our Connections team consider different factors that can influence how long it takes to connect your project to the transmission network. These include the complexity of the project, the connection site, the availability of outages and resource to do the work, and other contracted customer requirements. When considering your connection date we need to ensure that we can maintain the integrity and resilience of our transmission network and undertake any maintenance or upgrade work required. 

For timelines around certain connections regions, visit our Research Assistant

For the full information on User Self Build Agreements, visit our page here: https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/connections/article/user-self-build-agreements

Certain substations may be full as they cannot be expanded due to physical, geographical or system limitations. For more information on expanding and triggering new substations, visit here: https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/connections/article/substation-expansion-and-creation

To find out more about substation capacity, visit our Research Assistant

We encourage our customers to visit our Research Assistant to get the most up to date information about each connections region in England and Wales. Please take the time to research in depth before progressing with your connection.

For full NGET cost information, visit this page: https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/how-to-get-connected/researching-your-connection/how-much-will-it-cost

 During the two step offer process, NGET and ESO paused the one to one pre application process. Previously, customers were facing long waiting times to obtain a meeting, due to the high volume of applications.  

Furthermore, the large influx of applications- whether viable or not, have triggered an ever-increasing volume of Enabling Works, and occupying many of our existing substation assets. The information we share with customers must reflect the holistic view of our connections landscape. By holding regular webinars, we can maintain a concrete touchpoint with customers, whilst ensuring that the information we provide remains useful. 

To ensure that updates can be provided that better reflect the current network picture, webinars have been moved to a quarterly frequency. Dates and times can be found on the ESO Connections website along with recordings of previous webinars here, under regional webinar materials.  

We also recognise that queries can arise at any time. Therefore, in between these webinars, customers with a ESO portal account will be able to ask specific questions. This will mean that customer questions are picked up in between webinars and answered by ESO and NGET colleagues. Please also ensure you are using the ESO portal to submit any commercially sensitive questions, or questions which cannot be answered via previous regional webinar recordings or NGET’s Research Assistant tool.  Your questions can be submitted via the pre-application process in the portal, and they will remain confidential.  

National Grid ESO has proposed a change to the industry rules to introduce ‘queue management’. 

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has supported the ESO’s development of its proposal, and we strongly advocate for its introduction as soon as possible. Ofgem has approved this new modification, and the process of implementation has begun.

The proposed new way of working will require customers developing projects to meet key milestones at various points of their connection journey. Where these milestones are not met, stalling projects will have to make way for other projects further back in the queue that are ready to proceed.

For more information, visit this page: https://www.neso.energy/industry-information/connections/queue-management

In England and Wales, the total capacity of customer projects seeking connection currently stands at 343GW and is continuing to grow at an accelerated rate. This is leading to customers who are entering the pipeline with new projects receiving connection dates that are much later than when they would like to connect.  Therefore, reform of the connections arrangements is a key priority for the energy industry.

Tactical change is underway to begin addressing immediate and longer term issues within the pipeline. NGET is playing a leading role in delivering these changes alongside the ESO, and other industry colleagues.

For more information visit this page: https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/future-of-connections