Ofgem kills off zombies on Valentine’s Day

By Finance News On Feb 14, 2025

There’s no love lost on ‘zombie energy projects’ as Ofgem has today pulled the trigger on grid connection reform.

From this Spring a new connections system could be in place, which would end the first-come, first-served system, which has led to massive grid queues.

Clean energy generation or storage projects that we need cannot get plugged into the grid quickly enough, with some waiting a decade or more, however from today projects would be fast-tracked if they can be operational quickly and are needed to hit the government’s clean power targets for 2030.

This new system, which prioritises projects that are “ready” and “needed” would see accelerated new offers made by the end of the year, with the first connected and operational from 2026. 

Akshay Kaul, Ofgem’s Director General for Infrastructure, said: “This is a step change in tackling delays and shortening queues on what is currently an outdated and unwieldy system. It is key to achieving the Clean Power mission by 2030. 

Britain will not get a clean power grid by 2030 unless an unprecedented volume of new renewable power and storage is connected to electricity networks – that’s why we’re cutting back the red tape and replacing the out-of-date connections system.   

“It will also help speed up connections for public services, including housing, hospitals and EV charging stations, as well as new industries like data centres which are key to boosting economic growth”. 

These zombie projects have been a big blocker for Labour’s plans to get more connections to meet it’s 2030 target and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was glad of the change.

He commented: “We have enough energy projects in the grid connection queue to deliver clean power by 2030 but many are stuck behind speculative schemes, leading to delays of up to 10 years.

“These reforms are critical to deliver clean power by 2030 , which will bring forward an estimated £200 billion of private investment. 

“Our Clean Power Action Plan will fix the broken ‘first come first served’ system and these changes will mean a targeted approach which prioritises quicker connections for the right projects in the right place, so Britain can accelerate towards a new era of clean electricity.”  

Today’s decision comes after two years of activity across the energy industry covering consultations, code modification working groups and wider engagement to create these proposals submitted to Ofgem by the National Energy System Operator (NESO).

Ofgem is now asking anyone with an interest to respond to the consultation by Friday 14th March 2025. 