The plans, called Connect and Manage, will clear the way for renewable energy projects such as wind farms to connect to the grid in time to meet the 2020 renewable energy targets.
David Kidney, minister of DECC, said: “Access to the electricity grid has been one of the key barriers to the generation of renewable energy in this country. There is currently around 78GW of prospective new generation capacity – some 160 projects – that are waiting to be connected to the grid, including over 19GW from renewable sources.
“The new rules will help these projects get hooked up to the grid as soon as they are ready – helping in the shift to low carbon, secure energy supplies.”
‘Connect and Manage’ will enable new generators to connect to the electricity transmission network and start generating as soon as their local connection has been built, without having to wait for wider network reinforcement to be completed, DECC said.
National Grid then manages the increased constraints on the network as more generation is connected before the completion of wider reinforcement work. As per the proposals, these additional constraint costs are socialized equally across all generators and suppliers in a way that supports new generators.
