Britain wasted £649m already this year powering down wind farms as there is not enough grid capacity to send renewable energy where it is needed, utility finds
Britain wasted £649m already this year powering down wind farms as there is not enough grid capacity to send renewable energy where it is needed, utility finds
I don’t think Octopus are a DNO so don’t have any infrastructure. Aren’t they merely a reseller of electricity?
There are a number of projects to add additional HVDC links for power sharing and also a couple of battery storage stations.
The issue with National Grid is that it is subject to funding cycles, currently 5 years and the next one starting April 2026, so have to present justification for government money to improve the grid. They can present white papers during the funding cycle for re openers and sometimes money is spent at risk.
There is a £60bn investment going in to the grid over the next 5 years.
The flow of electricity is now controlled by NESO who are now a government entity, and currently in a separation period from National Grid.
Also, NESO just switched the queue for grid connection applications from “First Come, First Served” to “First Ready, First Connected” because the backlog is so long for DNOs (Distribution Network Operators) that there’s a lot of zombied projects that rushed to get the application without planning permission or funding because the wait is so long.
Hopefully this coupled with additional funding and planning reform will be enough to get the extra transmission capacity that is so desperately needed, even for energy storage sites.
So a private company is shaming the government into building infrastructure in their next funding, in the name of public good and wasted sales - that’s fair enough
National Grid is a private company
They are funded via OFGEM, and infrastructure building doesn’t happen overnight.
Having a bleeding edge grid would be bad. There is lots of approval and testing that adds to delivery timelines, along with the funding
well shut me up…!