SP Transmission Connections Summit

Thank you for attending the SPEN Transmission Connections Summit on Thursday 30th of November. With over 150 attendees, the event was our biggest yet, so we really appreciate you giving up your time to spend it with us. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all in person at the event.

As promised, we wanted to ensure you all received the slide pack that was presented on the day so please find this at the bottom of this webpage. 

Ofgem

1. When may the LOA requirement come in?

“We have encouraged ESO to begin requesting Landowner LOAs on a voluntary basis as soon as possible, and expect this to begin before the end of this year.

We have also encouraged ESO to rapidly bring forward a code modification which seeks to insert the Landowner LOA requirement as a connection application requirement – this would codify the change so it is no longer voluntary. When we receive a completed FMR for this, we will endeavour to review and publish our decision as soon as possible. We expect this to be in early 2024, although this is dependent upon a number of factors.”

2. How will CAP support SPTs development and delivery teams to actually meet these acceleration targets? With the volume of new contracted parties, the accelerations proposed should consider reform which increases TO delivery resources, reduces planning timescales and increases supplier availability

“As referenced in our Connections Action Plan (CAP), we have just set up the Connections Delivery Board which will allow us to plan and work through with industry stakeholders how we will go about achieving the actions set out in the CAP. This will be a monthly opportunity for Ofgem and government to track progress towards achieving the actions and collaborating with industry to ensure we achieve our intended outcomes. As part of this, TOs can be part of the strategic steer for prioritisation, sense check timelines and raise any delivery risks. 

All three TOs are standing members of the CDB and will be involved in any decision making processes by the board including recommending urgency criteria application to code proposals where appropriate. The board, as well as other elements of the delivery structure (e.g. CPAG) will have close links to existing groups such as SCG who will advise on appropriate consideration of T/D interface arrangements.”

3. To what extent are the milestone dates negotiable?

“The milestone dates are non-negotiable. They will be set according to an individual User’s contracted Completion Date, calculated by working backwards from this. You can find more information on this at ESO’s guidance here, with the table for Milestone dates found on page 7: Queue management 

Where a User thinks they may be at risk of missing a Milestone, they should inform ESO at the earliest possible opportunity. In the event a Milestone is missed and the User is at risk of termination, the User should check if they qualify under the Exceptions process.”

4. How is "First ready, First Connect' going to be implemented? CMP 376 talks about milestones and cancelling projects. How will the projects that can be ready earlier than their connection date, connect with accelerated date

“We are in regular discussions with ESO about the current First Come First Served approach and how to move away from this as soon as possible. As signalled in our Connections Action Plan, we consider a means of doing this could be to shift to a First Ready, First Connected approach. We are not yet in a position to share if, how or when this would be implemented; however this is a priority for Ofgem and something we are looking into promptly.”

ESO

1. What % of your offers are being accepted?

"Based on a snapshot of current data the rate of acceptance is circa 77% from 1st April 2023 to 22nd December 2023, in SP’s area."

2. The 70% of projects that is forecasted to not get built, that’s from the point that a party requests a Pre app, is it not? Or is that 70% of connected projects? It would seem best to use the % of contracted projects that don’t progress rather than including speculative pre apps

"The 70% is contracted projects that actually connect, not pre-apps."

SPEN - Outages

1. Availability/curtailment analysis is very important when assessing the viability of an offer prior to acceptance. Can SPT proactively provide the necessary data alongside offers? I.e. historic outage data, future planned outages, half hourly loading etc

"We’re continuously looking for ways to improve the quality and scope of information contained in the offer and are actively looking at ways we can improve the transparency of network information to aid developers in assessing the viability of the connection offer. This is a common line of feedback and we’ll look to add it to non-firm/RAA offers going forward."

SPEN - Data

1. How often will the data on the Heat Map be updated?

"The data on the heat map will be updated monthly. Usually around the middle of the month in line with the latest version of the TEC register at that time."

2. Other than being interactive, what’s the difference between the Transmission heat map and the TEC register

"The TEC register provides the information in an excel format. We have taken this to encompass our license area and use it to highlight the volume of connections already connected and contracted within our network. We hope this helps customers visualise the network and understand why there are certain constraints at specific sites."

3. Given the high number of applications and the low number that come to completion, would it be a consideration to release more data, including network models and data?

"We currently offer data through our SPEN Open Data Portal. Within this you have the ability to register and put a request in for specific data. This then goes through our internal governance process and if possible to be shared will be."

4. Will the heat map show where the contracted connection would be directly connecting into the SP network? This information is often missing from the TEC register, listing the project substation as the connection point

"We are currently investigating how we can accurately share this on our heatmap in future iterations of the tool. As soon as we make any updates to this, we will be happy to share the news with you."

5. Will the heatmap give RAG for substations/ccts or network data for them?

"The team is looking into the best source of data for this tool that can accurately represent the continual changes to the network."

SPEN - Connections

1. Are you likely to inform new applications that there is no need for additional generation until those projects already contracted are completed.

"The TOs are regulated to develop a connection offer for every connection application which we receive, regardless of the amount of generation already connected and/or contracted in any part of the network. However, looking to the future we do believe the Centralised Strategic Network Plan should have a strong role to play in determining areas of the network where further generation is required or not."

2. Would you consider a connection date amnesty?

"A TEC Amnesty approach has already been undertaken by the ESO whereby customers could effectively relinquish their connection date by offering to terminate their TEC."

3. Can you create a SSEN style transmission works portal with maps and development progress and community liaison website?

"As part of the new customer liaison department within the Connections team, we are constantly looking at ways of improving our online tools. We are looking at how both our counterparts to the North and South share details with their customers and will investigate what we can create on our own."

4. Can we have a structure chart of the SPT team members and how they are splits across regions - thanks

"Given the volume of applications that we continue to receive, we do not currently allocate team members to particular regions. Applications are currently allocated on workload across the team, rather than particular regions."

5. There seems to be a wild west gold rush for BESS sites. How are SPT engaging with regulators / government / developers to ensure that the big picture of BESS enabling net zero and system requirements rather than allowing BESS to create significantly more issues than they aim to solve?

"We are actively involved in industry discussions in relation to BESS on the system. There is no doubt that BESS technology offers many benefits to the system, however, the current demand for battery connections significantly outweighs network requirements. We have shared views on the impacts of BESS on both our transmission and distributions networks with both Ofgem, DESNZ and the Scottish Government."

6. Prior to an offer being made by ESO to a customer, does SPT get any visibility of the elements of the BCA that are meant to reflect elements of the TOCO? We have experienced some issues where there appear to be contradictions or gaps between the two contracts.

"As it is contractual arrangement between the ESO and the individual customer, SPT does not get any sight of the BCA."

7. Is the application fee paid to ESO passed to you to create the connection offer?

"The application fee is billed by the ESO and is put in holding until we complete our work and invoice for our part in the process."

SPEN - Policy

1. Have Labour consulted with you on their ideas for GB Energy? What are your views?

"We are engaging extensively with Labour officials right now, and have had a number of discussions about what GB Energy could do to assist with the urgent investment required to meet our Net Zero targets. The role of Networks is fundamental to Net Zero and reducing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels."

SPEN - Projects

1. Given resource challenges to deliver all the Enabling Works… how much risk is attached to the connection dates included within the Construction Programmes within offers? Are these dates optimistic, pessimistic, realistic

"The programmes that we build include for standard project risks and are constructed on realistic dates, based on voluntary consents being achieved. With the substantial increase in applications along with the wider industry resource challenge, we are now finding that additional risk is being added to the project programmes as interactivty across the network increases and project scopes change to meet our obligations against a fluid contracted background. The volume increase has also meant that achieving voluntary consent is increasingly more difficult and complex as competition for land increases and landowners try to balance the use of their land between competing opportunities. We have also seen additional risk to programme being added due to increasing lead times of our supply chain. We procure from a global market and are finding these increases across the various asset types from various parts of the world. We are continuing to work closely with our supply chain to mitigate the impact of lead times on our programmes. We are continually reviewing our standard programme templates to ensure that we feed in the latest information, including an up to date risk profile, to provide realistic and challenging programmes of work in a changing and dynamic environment."