What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the National Energy System Operator proposals regarding changes to grid connections in Wales?
Welsh Government officials have observed the two-year process of connections reform that led to the announcement on 15 January that the National Energy System Operator (NESO) will pause the consideration of applications for new connections received from 29 January 2025. This will not include large demand connections, to enable large industrial and commercial connections to continue, to support the economy.
Our analysis indicates that, given the very large increase in the number of applications for new connections over the last one to two years, it is unrealistic to expect NESO to continue to consider individual connection requests at the same time as it adopts the new system it has proposed.
The new approach is designed to have windows for application followed by periods when the NESO can consider all these applications together and analyse whether changes are needed to their holistic network design to accommodate all the applications.
When also considering the level of current connections, which amount to about four times the level of generation we will need by 2050, it makes sense to allow the NESO to focus on identifying the projects that will add most value to the system and can be delivered at pace, whilst also ensuring plans for new grid to be the most efficient, most cost effective and least impact possible.
We will keep the process under review and listen to people in Wales as part of our assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed arrangements.