What NESO’s connections reform proposals mean for accelerating clean energy projects

How is connections reform progressing?

Our teams at National Grid Electricity Transmission (ET) have been working hard with the NESO, Ofgem, government and industry on changes to improve Britain’s connections process, helping to shape progress at every turn.

We’ve seen positive developments, with the government and Ofgem’s Connections Action Plan from last year giving a fresh boost and industry-wide coordination to efforts to get projects plugged in faster.

Nine ways we’re working with industry to speed up connections

Our collaborative measures with distribution networks, for example, have accelerated over 200 clean energy projects. And we continue to engineer new connections to our network in England and Wales, with 3.4GW of projects delivered during 2023/24 and a further 4.5GW expected during 2024/25 – including the largest transmission connected battery in Britain.

But the sector is moving faster than reform, and the connections pipeline continues to grow – growth that is driven in large part by ‘zombie’ projects we know will never be ready to connect.

We’ve long been advocating for stronger measures to tackle the inflated pipeline – so the direction of travel in NESO’s proposals is positive

With the transmission pipeline currently oversubscribed at more than 560GW – three times what is needed to meet Britain’s net zero goals – there is huge uncertainty around what substations need building and where. 

This is making an already challenging planning landscape even more complex for all parties involved, while triggering a massive volume of unnecessary network engineering work.

It’s all causing delays, and underlining the urgent need for reform.

What are NESO’s new reform proposals?

NESO has asked industry for feedback on a package of proposals which includes plans to reduce and re-prioritise the connections pipeline, raise barriers to entry, and align reform to the country’s strategic energy plans.

Central to the proposals is a gated process, moving from ‘first come, first served’ to a ‘first ready and needed, first connected’ approach. This puts the focus on connecting clean energy projects that are most ready, including accelerating those projects which meet new progression criteria.

Connections reform must be reflected in Britain’s strategic energy plans, so we’re not designing a post-2030 grid before the pre-2030 works are known

These criteria would apply not only to new projects, but to the existing pipeline as well – weeding out the speculative or unviable projects causing congestion and potentially reducing the size of the pipeline significantly.

Crucially, NESO’s proposals also aim to align to the needs set out recently in its Clean Power 2030 (CP2030) report, and make sure the right mix of technologies are in the right places to achieve net zero.

Do the proposals go far enough?

Our teams at National Grid ET have long been advocating for stronger measures to tackle the inflated pipeline – so the direction of travel in NESO’s proposals is positive.

Particularly welcome is the consideration not only of a project’s readiness, but the need for it in the context of Britain’s broader energy strategy – for example CP2030 and, in future, the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP). This would help with strategic prioritisation of projects against network capacity and net zero efforts.

Read our response to NESO’s consultation

We have, however, highlighted several risks and considerations to NESO which are crucial to reform being successfully delivered. Close coordination between NESO and transmission owners will be imperative around go-live of the new gated process, to ensure our respective teams have time to recalibrate existing pipeline offers before new application windows open.

A clearly set out pathway for alignment and interaction between connections reform, CP2030, SSEP and the latest transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan (tCSNP2) is also key. In particular, NESO’s tCSNP2 refresh – expected in 2026 – should reflect the outputs of connections reform, so we’re not designing a post-2030 network before the pre-2030 works are known.

What happens next?

The consultation has just closed, so there will be feedback for NESO to consider to refine the methodology proposals before we can expect the next update.

It shows that collectively with government and Ofgem, our industry continues to take meaningful steps towards delivering the Connections Action Plan and a strategically planned net zero electricity network.

Is your connections project already in development?

Find out more about our connections processes, including information on siting studies.