UK Power Networks is unlocking new generation and battery storage capacity and fast-tracking offers to more than 40 new energy projects this year.
The revised offers are bringing forward connection dates by more than a decade in some instances.
The initial phase will see 2.3GW released across eight Grid Supply Points (GSPs) in 2023, with a further 1.7GW across four GSPs in early 2024.
Customers across UK Power Networks’ distribution areas who accept the revised offers will be able to connect as soon as they are ready to build.
Its distributed energy resource management (DERMS) platform is the largest operational deployment of its kind in the UK.
The Strategic Connections Group, which is run through the Energy Networks Association, has been tasked with accelerating connections for renewable energy.
UK Power Networks has led a collaborative drive from all networks to fast-track waiting times for distributed energy resources that are currently waiting for new capacity on the national transmission system.
UK Power Networks has used its experience with its DERMS platform, which first launched in 2019, to enable new and emerging assets like large-scale battery storage to take advantage of existing system capacity.
The platform has provided insights to how this can work for constraints on the national transmission network.
Matt White, head of network strategy at UK Power Networks DSO, said: “Networks are working together and taking a whole-systems approach that is showing how we can deliver the capacity we need to reach net zero.
“Our DSO is demonstrating how the technology, people and data that it is developing is making a tangible difference to our customers by fast-tracking gigawatts of capacity in our licence areas and beyond.
“We’re committed to making it cheaper, easier and faster for net zero technology to connect to the network, and we’re working closely with our fellow networks and the national transmission system to make it happen.”