As of 2pm (BST) today (16 July), NESO has confirmed an extension of the deadline for grid connection applications of five working days.
In a live webinar announcing the window extension, Matt Magill, director of engineering & customer solutions transformation at NESO, said there are currently over 900 application drafts in the system, with just over 200 completed submissions.
His key message, ahead of addressing the issues that have been highlighted was “please keep engaging”.
NESO is working on a series of further functionality fixes for the portal, he said. The key problems identified by the operator, including “a lot of usability issues”.
Magill also highlighted a major cause for uncertainty amongst battery storage developers that was preventing submissions being completed, which was a requirement to give the capacity of a prospective battery energy storage system (BESS) in megawatt-hours.
Developers were concerned that they would be held to a duration given potentially years before commissioning.
Magill reassured that the MWh figure given for lithium-ion BESS will not be used by the operator. He explained that other types of energy storage not included in the Clean Power 2030 technology classes do need to be able to declare themselves as long-duration, which is why the portal used duration as a metric. He assured that “if you do not meet the long-duration energy storage requirement, you won’t be required to give a megawatt-hour figure.”
Calls for NESO’s grid connection application window to be paused
The application window for grid connections has been open for just over a week and developers are reporting wide ranging issues with the application portal.
The window to apply for a Gate 2 grid connection, by providing evidence of a project’s readiness and strategic alignment per connection reform proposals accepted by Ofgem, is due to close on 29 July.
However, developers who have begun the process are reporting issues, ranging from poor user interface to being unable to upload evidence documents.
In a LinkedIn post, Charles Deacon, managing director of grid consultancy group Eclipse Power Solutions, said he is “yet to meet a developer who has been able to submit all the evidence they require”.
Renewable energy trade associations RenewableUK, Scottish Renewables and Solar Energy UK have co-signed an open letter to Fintan Slye, NESO CEO, calling for a pause in the Gate 2 submissions process, stating a concern that the current process for submission of projects via NESO’s Gate 2 portal is not viable.
The letter acknowledges that NESO is working on the issues being reported (although posts on LinkedIn suggest the operator is slow to respond to complaints as they are raised) but the “number and breadth of the issues does not give the sector sufficient confidence that these can be solved ‘in track’ and in sufficient time for our members to meet the 29 July submission deadline”.
The trade bodies “simply do not have confidence that the information gathered will be of sufficient quality to undertake an accurate reorganisation of the connections queue.”
They also claim that some fixes have rendered applications already made using ‘workarounds’ inaccurate.
The renewable energy industry has been vocal about discontent with the reformed connection process, but it is resigned to the new process. As Tom Kenyon-Brown, senior storage lead at developer Renewco Power, put it in a LinkedIn post, “NESO has put a huge amount of obligations and requirements on industry as part of connections reform.”
According to him, NESO has not upheld its end of the bargain.
Olly Frankland, Energy Storage Network lead, said via LinkedIn that members of the network are also reporting that the portal is not working, “preventing almost all applications from being submitted”.
According to Frankland, over 1,700 issues have been logged, and key project data is missing or incorrect.
RenewableUK has opened a Gate 2 Issues Log, allowing anyone who encounters issues to register what their issue is, the criticality of the problem and suggest a solution. These inputs will be anonymised and presented to government and NESO.
The trade associations have suggested that NESO implement an immediate pause for a minimum of two weeks of the Gate 2 submissions window, to work during the pause to address developer issues and queries “including intensive beta testing of the portal using real projects from prospective applications”.
They also ask for a clock reset upon reopening the submissions window to allow a full three-week period to submit projects.
NESO has announced it will hold a webinar on 16 July at 2pm (BST) to address issues with the application process.
