One regional distribution operator, Northern Powergrid, has been accused of foot-dragging on a grid connection, after being unable to improve on a twelve-year wait to hook up one developer’s battery project.

Solar park builder Enviromena has taken the unusual step of issuing a public statement, accusing the DNO of “stifling” investment. The developer accuses Northern Powergrid of jeopardising the viability of its unbuilt farm at West Sleekburn, Northumberland.

Enviromena says its 30MW battery addition to the plant received planners’ approval in October 2022. But after talks, the DNO now can guarantee no grid connection date for the intended battery before October 2036.

According to the developer, Northern Powergrid indicated in discussions last year that its grid supply point at Blyth might enable an earlier connection, possibly available under the DNO’s Delegated Technical Limits programme.

The developer had hoped to confirm that earlier connection date before Christmas. But Northern Powergrid later told it that the Blyth hub had been removed from the DNO’s programme of accelerated connections, due to technical reasons. The developer says the grid company can commit to no alternative before the already stated deadline twelve years from now.

Enviromena CEO’s Chris Marsh said in a statement: “We are extremely disappointed with the latest delay, which has left a key project without a feasible connection date despite being ready to construct.

“The North East is enjoying a renaissance for clean energy as it emerges as a key hub for renewables, Marsh went on.

“The actions of Northern Powergrid go directly against the Government’s wider agenda to move away from fossil fuels and achieve carbon Net Zero goals by 2050 and it is stifling investment in the area. The delay represents a major setback.”

He added: “We submitted details to Northern Powergrid demonstrating our West Sleekburn project was ready for an earlier connection with both planning and land rights in place.

“The site is ready to provide much-needed storage facilities for cleaner energy. I would urge Northern Powergrid to re-focus their efforts on resolving the issues at Blyth and kickstarting accelerated connections in the area.

“We have seen other network operators across the country accelerate connection dates by as much as thirteen years in recent weeks and we hope a similar resolution can be found for the Sleekburn project.”.

Marsh cited the National Grid’s estimates that Britain will need over 25GW of battery storage, up from 1GW today, if it is to decarbonise the nation’s grid by 2035.

Reading-based Enviromena last month announced it was about to submit a total of 400MWp new unbuilt PV farm proposals for planners’ consideration, en route to an intended 500MWp goal next year.

Responding in a statement, Northern Powergrid confirmed the developer’s account.  The operator said it was working hard to bring forward connection dates for customers with schemes delayed by constraints on the transmission network owned and operated by National Grid.

The DNO commented: “Towards the end of last year, we announced that we would be issuing revised connections offers for some customers, made possible through a programme of delegated technical limits”.

“Customers looking to connect at a major substation at Blyth in Northumberland were included in the proposal for the first phase of this work.

“However, after further scrutiny by ourselves and National Grid, it will not be possible during this stage of the programme and so we’re re-evaluating what we can do to support customers looking to connect to this area of our network.

“We remain committed to working with our customers whose projects are impacted and to keeping them informed about the actions we are taking to accelerate grid connections in our region”.

This afternoon trade body SolarEnergyUK will present to MPs evidence of what it calls connection delays ‘descending into farce’.  Queues to connect to the grid, at both low and high voltage, now surpass 500GW, the group claims, citing a recent estimate by consultancy Roadnight Taylor.

Reforms such as the ‘Technical Limits’ programme, intended to deliver connections for big batteries and generating assets in advance of reinforcements to the transmission grid, would only be possible if output from the new supply assets was cut at source, DNOs have told Solar Energy UK said.

The most permissive limit seen by the body is 63%, in return for a connection date being brought forward by a year. In some cases, said the group, developers have been told that this limit is zero, with not a single solar-powered electron being allowed to flow.

Grid consultancy Novogrid has seen 50 such messages over the past three months, all with curtailment above 90%.

“You couldn’t make it up“, said SolarEnergy UK CEO Chris Hewett. “It is like being told you can open a shop on the High Street, as long as you keep the doors locked.

“This is bizarre behaviour“,  he added, “an apparent attempt by the DNOs to make it look like they are doing something while they still fail to invest in vital upgrades.”

Hewett will present this afternoon to the Commons’ environmental audit committee.  On the same topic also this afternoon, grid commissioner Nick Winser will answer MPs on the committee shadowing the D-ESNZ ministry.  Coverage begins at 14:00; click on the links to view a live TV feed.

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Over-reliance by the National Grid and Energy Systems Operator ESO on gas, not batteries, as a second-by-second system balancing operator underlies the battery investor’s current woes, it told investors yesterday.

Lengthy connection waits for big batteries and storage systems (BESS) drive the nation’s excessive gas dependency, the fund’s boss Ben Guest wrote, as GRD launched a buyback of its own share to safeguard working cash.

Restricting new installations to 2023’s capex budget is GRID’s short-term step to preserve fund value. With just over 1 MW scheduled for operation by September, GRID remains on track to double its installed base this year, Guest reassured shareholders.

“The rising need for BESS as renewable generation increases remains as true as ever,” Guest informed investors. “The revenue environment is expected to improve, as discussed in the Market update below, although there is some uncertainty on the timing and trajectory of such improvement.

New generators have long blamed operator inertia and planning rules for connection delays sometimes beyond ten years. In August, former NG boss Nick Winser’s report urged paying communities to accept new link-up sites as a step to speed hooking up the colossal 230 GW of link-less projects now in Britain’s pipeline.  Average waits might thus be halved, to seven years, the Energy Systems Catapult boss said.

GRID said it was also talking to its debt providers to reduce borrowing costs. As of December, it had drawn down just under one-third of its £350 million facility.

Brighter operational news sees the fund’s 50MW/50MWh plant at West Didsbury, Manchester operational since December. It was followed by a 50MW/76MWh project in York energised in last month.

A total of 340MW of projects are being also upgraded, of which 305MW will have a two-hour duration, said Guest.

The investment fund’s chair John Leggate CBE endorsed Guest’s view.

“The challenging environment continues to persist for the battery storage industry in Great Britain as it transitions to a trading-focused business model, having been focused on frequency response until Q1 2023. These conditions, and their effect on revenues, are not unique to GRID”.

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Speeding up the delivery of new transmission lines and connections is challenging but achievable, Electricity Networks Commissioner Nick Winser advises energy ministry D-ESNZ today.

More than 230GW of clean, green generation plant is already in the UK’s connection pipeline, dwarfing the 80GW capacity currently connected, Winser found.  National goals see another 50GW of wind power and 24GW of nuclear, including small reactors, all needing to plug in before 2035.

Winser, a  former National Grid CEO, and now chair of technical research body Energy Systems Catapult, found it takes as long as 14 years between scoping a green generator’s needs, and hooking it into the grid.   Even big wind farms are built in half that time.

Customers, generators, developers and the environment all lose out, and today’s penalties look set to get worse.   Curtailment fees – the money paid to generators deprived of free flow of their output –  could rise from between half and £1 billion last year, to a peak of between £2 and £4 billion forecast around 2030, even if all current investment is delivered on time.

Appointed last July, Winser was tasked to advise ministers on accelerating & simplifying connections grants.  His eighteen recommendations include:

• Streamlining the system for planning approval
• Revised network maps to be published yearly by the imminent Future Systems Operator
• Regional markets for flexibility, DSR and time-shifting to be defined for the first time
• Making public for the first time the technical principles used by transmission engineers in designing networks & upgrades, whether onshore or offshore, overhead or underground
• Giving Transmission Operators incentives & responsibilities to deliver connections to time and to cost. Returns to shareholders should reflect the new settlement.
• TOs to be held accountable for skills shortages impeding faster delivery
• “Constructive engagement” with communities affected by new lines and towers

“We need bold decisions on energy policy right across the system, to reduce energy bills as much and as quickly as possible”, said the Energy Catapult boss.  “It’s unrealistic to imagine we can wait and see what energy sources and demands arise, then hope to build the necessary networks in time”.

To speed planning consent, Winser urges that clear National Policy Statements (NPS) regulating new lines should rank their strategic importance, and make explicit presumptions, including conditions when underground cabling is needed.   NPSs should be updated at least every five years, he says.

In the supply chain, a large skilled workforce of engineers and technicians must be mobilised to plan, design, build, commission and connect new assets into one of the most complex electricity transmission systems in the world, the adviser urges.

 Winser said: “Every part of this process must – and can – be dramatically improved including introducing a spatial energy plan and design principles outlining where and why we need new lines”.

Response from industry bodies was warm.  For National Grid, UK infrastructure president Carl Trowell, said:  “The Commissioner’s report is both timely and welcome”.

“It follows NG ‘s recent launch of The Great Grid Upgrade, the largest overhaul of the electricity transmission grid in generations, with significant new infrastructure planned across England and Wales.

“NG welcomes the report’s recommendations and the focus on delivering tangible benefits for communities hosting new infrastructure.

“We support the need for a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) which should set out what needs to be built where and when, ensure there is an upfront public consultation, and have a standing in planning law.

“There is no time to waste”, Trowell continued.  “Implementing the proposals and progressing the energy transition at pace is the surest route to more affordable bills, greater energy resilience and a more energy independent UK.”

For Octopus Energy Generation, CEO,  Zoisa North-Bond, said:  “Grid connection wait times remain a national scandal. It’s brilliant to see these recommendations to streamline the UK’s grid system and we hope they can be rolled out quickly.

“The UK is on the cusp of a massive decarbonisation opportunity, to build and connect more green energy and deliver cheaper, cleaner energy to people as a result. Timing is of the essence – the need to bring down bills and boost our energy security couldn’t be more urgent.”

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It is “simply not acceptable”, the regulatory chief said, that 20% of low carbon generation projects now in the NG’s and DNOs’ approval pipelines must wait ten years before reaching their offered connection dates.  A further 40% have been offered connections beyond 2030.

“That pace is not compatible with our ambitions on cost, security, or Net Zero”, said Brearley told a conference in Birmingham.

“Polite queuing may well be in the very best of our British traditions, but it is simply not working here”.

He called for an end to ‘first come, first served’ management of connection applications.  That had led to queues becoming blocked with projects based on outdated, now unviable business cases.

Between 60% and 70% of high-voltage transmission schemes never connect to the grid, the regulator calculates. More than half of today’s queued projects will wait five years or more to be offered a connection date.

Brearley welcomed this week’s proposals from National Grid ESO under its Connections Reform initiative for tighter management of links approval.

This says that projects which cannot meet predefined milestones will drop out of consideration, and without financial penalty.   Such a two-stage process could shorten connection waits for many schemes by between two and ten years, the ESO estimates.

National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew recently called for the ESO to be freed to make “anticipatory investment” to accommodate as yet unapproved renewables projects.

But Brearley maintained yesterday that Ofgem’s “invest and connect policy” has removed all barriers to National Grid investing in grid expansion and upgrades ahead of applications.

Ofgem piloted the new direction in December, accelerating £20bn investment in connecting up 26 offshore wind projects. It has launched a consultation to extend this approach to other technologies.

“This problem needs to be tackled now”, said Brearley. “We will work with everyone across the industry to make sure that we do. But if we don’t go far enough, then yes we will have to change the regime to make sure that we do so”.

On Net Zero, Brearley told the conference that the regulator’s board favoured taking on an explicit responsibility for delivering the target.   It would sit easily beside the body’s duty to defend consumers’ interests in Britain’s energy markets.

More here.

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The government’s Planning Inspector confirmed yesterday that no approval will be granted on Hornsea 4 before 12 July.  The planners were responding to a request to developers Ørsted for further information, made yesterday by the new Department of Energy Security & Net Zero.

The ministry needs assurances about the 860 square kilometre development’s likely impact on kittiwake, razorbill and guillemot populations nesting on Flamborough Head and Yorkshire’s Filey Coast.

Besides Orsted, yesterday’s letter sent on behalf D-ESNZ’s secretary of state Grant Shapps seeks advice from environmental watchdog Natural England.

Ana Musat, policy chief at RenewableUK fumed: “(This) decision to delay the Development Consent Order for Hornsea 4 is particularly disappointing as it will now take longer to meet our renewables targets.

“This landmark offshore wind project has the potential to supply an enormous 2.6 gigawatts of clean electricity to the grid”, she pointed out, “displacing expensive gas, reducing bills and boosting our energy security.

“At a time when countries like the US and the EU are doubling down on attracting clean energy investment through financial incentives and a stable policy framework, the UK cannot afford to create unnecessary hurdles for investors and developers.

“Government needs to reform our cumbersome planning system urgently to ensure that renewable energy projects are not subject to needless delays.

The wind advocate alleged that ”unclear guidance” given to planning authorities had resulted in no offshore wind project wind since 2017 has been recommended for approval by the Planning Inspectorate.

“All 6GW of these projects were delayed until the Secretary of State reviewed them to confirm approval”, Musat added.

To meet our 50GW offshore wind target, the UK will need to install 4.5GW of offshore wind a year in the latter half of this decade. A reformed planning system is essential to ensure we can stay ahead in the global race to build vital new clean energy infrastructure”.

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