Electricity News

Thursday 04 March 2010

Energy minister David Kidney launched DECC‘s second consultation on improving grid access, claiming the proposals would help in the shift to low carbon energy supplies

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published a second consultation looking at the final plans for changing the way new electricity generation is connected to the UK's power grid, with the aim of improving gird connections for renewable energy projects.

The consultation, which was published yesterday (March 3), focuses on the socialised 'Connect and Manage' system, which was selected as the best way to reform grid access following a consultation on four options last year (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

DECC claims 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.

National Grid would then manage the increased constraints on the network as more generation is connected before the completion of wider reinforcement work. Under the proposals, these additional constraint costs are socialised equally across all generators and suppliers on a per-MWh basis in a way that supports new generators.

The proposed new rules also include an increase in the commitment all power plants must give to the National Grid that they will remain connected and generating. Currently, all plants are considered to have one year of commitment to the network, which means they must give notice before the end of the current financial year when they wish to reduce the amount of network capacity they need in the subsequent one.

DECC proposes to increase this to two years user commitment for all existing and new generators, which, it claims, will help the network companies plan what new network build is needed, which in turn will help support new renewable projects and meet renewable targets.

Trade bodies RenewableUK (previously the BWEA) and the Renewable Energy Association both came out in favour of the socialised Connect and Manage system during the first consultation on improving grid access (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story), claiming the model was the most likely to achieve the government's renewable energy targets.

Speaking about the launch of the latest consultation, energy minister David Kidney 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."

The consultation 'Improving Grid Access - Technical consultation on the model for improving grid access' will close on March 31 2010. Following this consultation, the government will consider responses and aims to implement the new regime by June 2010.