Government targets renewables grid connection bottleneck

The government yesterday released long-awaited proposals to reform the grid connection regime in the UK and tackle the bottlenecks that have delayed the opening of numerous wind farms.

The proposals, dubbed Connect and Manage, have been set out as part of a new consultation that will run until the end of the month. They aim to speed up the time it takes to connect new energy generation projects to the grid, on the understanding they will then closely manage their energy output to ensure they stay within grid capacities.

Energy minister David Kidney said the changes to grid connection rules would particularly benefit renewable energy projects, many of which are found in remote locations and, as a result, have faced major difficulties securing grid connections.

"Access to the electricity grid has been one of the key barriers to the generation of renewable energy in this country," said Kidney. "There is currently around 78 gigawatts of prospective new generation capacity – some 160 projects – that are waiting to be connected to the grid, including over 19 gigawatts from renewable sources."

He added that the new rules would help projects get "hooked up to the grid as soon as they are ready – helping in the shift to low carbon, secure energy supplies".

Under existing rules, new grid connections are not approved until all the necessary grid upgrade work has been done in an area to support new connections. Renewable energy developers have consistently argued that this approach favours large-scale traditional power plants and has resulted in some completed wind farms waiting up to nine years for a grid connection.

The Connect and Manage model aims to ease the bottlenecks by allowing completed projects to connect to the grid and start generating power as soon as their local connection has been built, without having to wait for wider network reinforcement to be completed.

Under the terms of the connection agreement, National Grid would then manage the increased constraints on the network; for example, potentially requesting that wind farms scale back output at certain times, before the completion of wider grid reinforcement work.

The government said the additional costs associated with the grid constraints would be "socialised equally" across all generators and suppliers in order to ensure that new generators do not face punitive charges.