http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/2347/

UK Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband yesterday unveiled proposals to overhaul the way new power plants are connected to the country’s electricity grid.

Under the current system, projects are given a connection date on a first come, first served basis regardless of when they will start generating electricity. This has led to a backlog of over 60 GW – including 17 GW of renewable energy – that are waiting to be connected to the grid.

The current system is particularly unfavourable to wind farms, which can be ready to generate power much more quickly than new nuclear or coal plants.

“Access to the electricity grid has been one of the key barriers to the generation of renewable energy in this country. We need these new projects to get hooked up to the grid as soon as they are ready – both to help tackle climate change and secure our future energy supplies,” said Miliband.

The new proposals will give the industry three options for a new system. The first ‘socialised’ option would see all new connection costs shared between all users of the network. An alternative ‘hybrid’ model would share some costs and target new power stations with the remainder. The final ‘shared cost and commitment’ option gives the grid flexibility to offer different charging mechanisms for new and existing power generators.

The proposals, Improving Grid Access, will be open for comment until 17 November.

For further information:
www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/open/open.aspx

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