Octopus Energy has published a series of recommendations for reforming the UK’s grid connection process.
It warns that despite increased momentum behind addressing grid constraints over the past year, “developers with ready to build projects are yet to see the scale of impact we need from recent reforms”.
“It is therefore critical that we continue converting ambition into tangible progress,” the company states in a new report.
“As we await the outcome from industry initiatives, the queue to connect to the system has grown from >200GW to >700GW, meaning timelines to connect are climbing higher.
“It’s crucial now that we translate industry commitments and political intent into real traction through actions that deliver tangible wins for projects on the front line of this crisis.”
Octopus outlines four priority areas for further action: open sourcing the connections process, connecting the highest quality projects first, enabling wider industry collaboration and expanding upon existing network capacity.
It calls for an end to the “first come first served” grid connection system currently in place, where speculative applications have bloated the waiting list leading to “credible projects applying today” often having to wait until after 2035 for a connection date.
Recent regulatory proposals to apply stricter readiness criteria to all projects in the queue are “a welcome step”, however “network capacity is still likely to be constrained after this happens”, according to Octopus.
Meanwhile, building new grid infrastructure remains a key ask of government and network operators, as is deploying new measures to optimise existing capacity.
Regulator Ofgem is urged to “set the strong financial incentives that will drive urgency and action”.