Ofgem vows to end years-long wait for new wind farms to connect to power grid
Overhauling the ‘broken’ grid queue will treble the amount of new power reaching the system per year, officials say.
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Your support makes all the difference.Officials have unveiled plans to connect new wind and solar farms to the power grid faster, which they hope will end years of gridlock for some projects.
Regulator Ofgem hopes to scrap the current first-come, first-served approach to the grid connections queue, which has left some projects facing decade-long delays.
The new plan will see projects that can be up and running by 2030 fast-tracked, in a bid to help Labour hit its clean power goals.
Ofgem estimates the changes will roughly treble the amount of power generation added to the grid per year.
Just like his promise to cut bills by £300 and create 650,000 jobs, it ain't happening
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the reforms are “critical” to reach clean power by 2030, as the Government has promised, calling the current system “broken”.
He said the changes will mean “a targeted approach which prioritises quicker connections for the right projects in the right place”.
But acting shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie expressed scepticism that Mr Miliband could “build twice as much grid infrastructure in the next five years as we’ve built in the last decade”.
He said: “Just like his promise to cut bills by £300 and create 650,000 jobs, it ain’t happening.”
Developers have complained for years about the time it takes to get a cable to connect their wind or solar farm to the grid.
The current system means that a serious project which could provide electricity to millions of homes is often stuck behind more speculative schemes in the queue.
Britain will not get a clean power grid by 2030 unless an unprecedented volume of new renewable power and storage is connected to electricity networks
The queue is also an impediment to large-scale electric vehicle charging sites, like buses and vans, connecting to the grid.
Projects in the queue would generate more than 700 gigawatts (GW) of power if built, several times the amount the country needs.
As many as 40% of the schemes are speculative and will never be built, Ofgem said.
Akshay Kaul, Ofgem’s director general for infrastructure, said the plan represents a “step change in tackling delays and shortening queues”.
“Britain will not get a clean power grid by 2030 unless an unprecedented volume of new renewable power and storage is connected to electricity networks – that’s why we’re cutting back the red tape and replacing the out-of-date connections system.
“It will also help speed up connections for public services, including housing, hospitals and EV charging stations, as well as new industries like data centres which are key to boosting economic growth.”
The plans are out for consultation and the regulator wants the first projects to be connected under the new regime in 2026.