ENW frees up more than 2GW of additional network capacity

Electricity North West (ENW) has enabled an additional 2.4GW of network capacity.

The network operator said it had been able to provide an additional 1.4GW from the implementation of technical limits at its network interface with the National Grid and another 1GW from enhancing policies to adapt to new technologies.

ENW customer and connections director Steph Trubshaw said: “We are tackling the challenge to provide capacity for new connections head on as we continue to innovate and expand our network to meet the needs of our customers.”

She continued: “In the North West over the past four years we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of connections quotes over 1MW that have been accepted by customers and also in the average capacity being requested for each scheme, which has increased from 10MW in 2019/20 to 45MW in 2023/24.

“To put that in context the aggregate capacity of new connections has increased 10-fold from just under 400MW in 2020 to more than 4GW this year alone. The pipeline of such schemes for the region has now increased to 9GW. That’s double the current demand on the whole of the North West network and three times as much generation capacity as is currently connected in the region.”

Trubshaw added that ENW hope to enable another 1GW in the coming months by agreeing technical limits with the Electricity System Operator for a further four grid supply points.

Trubshaw added: “From as far back as April last year, we changed key policies in how we assess the impact of new connections taking a pragmatic approach informed by real world use of the network. We were the first network operator to do this, and our customers are now benefiting from that continued approach meaning we can connect as much as possible as quickly as possible.

“We’re taking some decisive action and pulling together as an industry and while also recognising the process to ensure fairness to all applicants.”

The government and Ofgem has focussed much of its recent attention on tackling the transmission network connections queue, with reforms announced last year to remove “zombie projects” from the queue.

The focus on the transmission network led Solar Energy UK to accuse the government of taking a “wait and see” approach to tackling delays at a distribution level.

In September last year, National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) also announced that it would release 10GW of additional capacity for “shovel ready” renewable energy projects.