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Energy Networks Association (ENA) has set out an industry action plan to release enough grid capacity in the next year to decarbonise Great Britain’s power grid.
With an additional 112GW of capacity already installed, the 139GW this action plan delivers exceeds the 225GW needed to decarbonise the grid.
This opens the door to enough customer projects to fully enable the decarbonisation of Britain’s electricity system by the committed date of 2035.
The industry body, which represents Great Britain’s energy network operators, confirmed in its report, Rising to Britain’s Net Zero Challenge: Our fairer and faster connections action plan, that nearly 50GW of that additional capacity is already available to customers this year.
Network operators recently welcomed Ofgem and the UK Government’s Joint Action Plan, and today’s report demonstrates how Britain’s network companies will play their part in delivering it.
The report explains the six steps in the energy networks’ action plan, four of which have been under way since the start of the year and two that are new.
The major steps that have already revolutionised the connections process this year in Britain comprise releasing up to 90GW of capacity via a “first ready, first connected” process, accelerating up to 70GW of applications by allowing some applicants to connect faster, releasing nearly 3GW of capacity by treating storage differently and releasing 46GW of capacity by making network planning processes more coordinated and realistic.
The two additional steps that complete the action plan are strengthening and tightening the application process, by making the application process more discerning, and improving coordination between transmission and distribution operators.
These six steps build on reforms that are already under way across the industry including the ESO’s Five Point Plan, Ofgem’s initiative to reform connections rules and ENA’s Strategic Connections Group Action Plan announced earlier in the year.
The report makes clear that networks want to see wider reform from policymakers.
It calls out the need for planning, land rights and consenting reforms to speed up the building of new infrastructure. The report also calls on government and Ofgem to work with industry to make improvements to how ‘the queue’ is accessed and prioritised.
Lawrence Slade, Chief Executive of Energy Networks Association, which represents the UK’s energy network operators said: “The industry action plan we’ve set out today includes new ways to strengthen and tighten up the application process for connections to ensure only projects with a realistic chance of coming to fruition are approved, as well as a redoubling of efforts to improve coordination between transmission and distribution operators which we know will be more streamlined and ultimately, fairer for customers.”
John Twomey, director of customer connections at National Grid, said: “This report shows how joined up working across the energy sector is delivering the change that’s needed to speed up connections and decarbonise Britain.
“There’s much more work to do, but the ENA’s proposals – together with the electricity system operator’s recent recommendations for reform – will see distribution and transmission networks working hand-in-glove to deliver on the government and Ofgem’s bold connections action plan.”
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