On January 15th, NESO announced that they will pause grid connection applications starting January 29th to facilitate the implementation of connection reforms (Major reform to GB grid connections could be rolled out in 2025). However, demand projects directly connected to the national electricity transmission network are exempt from this pause. NESO has indicated that this pause will be ‘short’ and ‘transitional’. According to NESO’s legal letter to Ofgem, the pause is expected to remain in place until either Ofgem’s decision on the Connections Reform is issued or the fall back date of 31st May is reached.
The connections queue has seen significant growth throughout 2024. At the beginning of the year, the queue capacity stood at 565 GW and has now surpassed 750 GW —almost double the 380 GW required in NESO’s FES24 Holistic Transition scenario. This rapid increase includes a notable oversupply of short-duration storage projects, with 120 GW of capacity queued for 2030 and 275 GW queued for 2035. These figures sharply contrast with the 27.2GW capacity outlined in the New Dispatch pathway of the CP30 report.
Beyond wider reforms to connections proposed by NESO, DESNZ is also considering the potential for non-firm grid connections for storage as part of REMA (a strategy being adopted in other European nations with long grid connection queues), adding additional regulatory uncertainty. As we move further into 2025, greater clarity will emerge regarding key decisions surrounding network connections in GB, providing developers with crucial insights into how these decisions might influence project timelines and revealing more clearly the winners and losers of the change in strategy.