National Grid has increased its investment plans to £42bn by 2026 as the backlog of clean energy projects waiting to connect to the UK’s power networks continues to grow.
The FTSE 100 monopoly, charged with running most of the UK’s power grids and some networks in the US, spent a record £3.5bn in the first half of the financial year as a result of the momentum of green policies on both sides of the Atlantic.
It also set out new plans to invest a total of £42bn in the UK and US in its five-year spending framework running up until the 2025 to 2026 financial year - £2bn more than it had planned in May.
However, the company’s chief executive, John Pettigrew, warned that “fundamental reform” of the UK’s electricity network planning was still required to help tackle the growing logjam of clean energy projects waiting for a grid connection.
The UK plans to run its grid entirely on clean electricity by 2035 but many renewable energy projects have been told they face a 10- to 15-year wait for a connection before they can begin providing the network with clean power.
Pettigrew told the Guardian that the queue of power projects grew by 50 gigawatts in the last quarter to around 400GW in total, well above the UK’s existing power capacity of around 65GW. Many of these projects are understood to be speculative applications that are unlikely to move forward.
National Grid has undertaken a string of new reforms to ease the green energy gridlock, which has raised concerns over the future of billions of pounds of green investment and could derail the UK’s progress towards its climate targets.
It offered energy developers an “amnesty deal” earlier this year to urge developers to get on with their projects or get out of the queue for a grid connection with no financial penalty. Pettigrew said this had shaved 5GW from the backlog.
The company has also retained a legal firm to help move aside delayed developments to make way for viable projects and is working with the regulator to tweak existing rules that developers can build their own grid connections which could take another 40GW from the backlog.
Pettigrew said the UK needed “fundamental reform” to create a connections regime “which is fit for purpose”.
He said the UK could tackle the problem of “zombie projects” by moving away from a first-come, first-served queue system and putting in place higher standards that projects must meet before developers can make a grid connection application.
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National Grid outlined its record investments alongside its financial results for the six months to the end of September, which revealed a profit of £1.4bn, down from £1.7bn in the same period last year.
The company has stepped up investment in 17 major onshore and offshore transmission projects in the UK that were fast-tracked by the energy regulator, Ofgem, earlier this year. In the US, the company said it was working on “a number of major transmission projects to unlock renewable generation”.
Pettigrew said: “We’re ready to meet the opportunities, and are set up to tackle the challenges ahead, to deliver a clean, fair and affordable energy future for all.”
