Speeding up UK grid connections: the latest from Ofgem and government

Timely grid connections are becoming ever more important as generation, storage and demand projects queue to connect in Great Britain. In under a fortnight, Ofgem and government have moved on three fronts: Ofgem's decisions from its connections end-to-end review, the government's Great British Grid announcement and an Ofgem consultation on letting customers build, and then transfer, far more of their own transmission connection.

Great British Grid: competition for new network build

As we explained in our recent post, Great British Grid (GBG) will be a publicly owned branch of Great British Energy that competes for new transmission projects, rather than taking existing assets into public ownership. Onshore, that points to the Competitively Appointed Transmission Owner (CATO) regime, under which the first tender is expected during 2027. The announcement also promised reforms letting developers and businesses build their own connections where appropriate. Ofgem has since published detailed proposals to do just that.

Self-build and transfer: beyond the 2km limit

We examine Ofgem's consultation, Connect: self-build and transfer (7 October 2026), in detail in a separate article. In short, Ofgem proposes to let demand, generation and storage customers build all the sole-use assets between their site and the existing transmission system, then transfer them to the Transmission Owner (TO). Today, transmission self-build is broadly limited to sites within 2km of the existing system. Stakeholders cite cost savings of around 20% and time savings of one to two years where no reinforcement is needed, although Ofgem accepts that, for many projects, enabling and wider works will still drive the connection date. Proposed safeguards include building to TOs' published technical standards, Ofgem approval of non-standard designs, a five-year defect period and an Ofgem-set price for infrastructure assets expected to be worth £40m or more. A decision is expected in Q1 2027, taking effect immediately, and existing customers may, where appropriate, be able to opt in.

For now, transfer is only to the incumbent TO; transfer to an independent TO (iTO), and the fit with CATO, will be considered separately. As our Great British Grid post noted, an iTO licence could give GBG a role as co-investor in, or owner of, self-built assets.

Transforming the connections experience

Ofgem's Transforming the Connections Experience (25 September 2026) sets out its decisions from the connections end-to-end review, with questions on implementation open until 6 November 2026. Stakeholders described a process that is hard to navigate, with patchy service, unclear offers, little sight of progress and weak accountability for delay. For larger connections at distribution and transmission level, Ofgem's response includes:

• prescriptive licence conditions setting minimum requirements across the customer journey, from pre-application response times and a point of contact to minimum offer content, change control, proactive progress updates and outage planning;
• richer offers for larger projects, with proposed content including cost breakdowns, the assumptions behind connection dates, contestable and non-contestable works, and firm and non-firm options;
• a principles-based duty to make “ambitious yet achievable” connection offers, and an opt-in route for customers to take up earlier or alternative connections as they become available; and
• further work on accountability: higher Guaranteed Standards of Performance payments from distribution network operators, possible greater-than-zero liquidated damages for transmission delays (today predominantly £0 a day), performance reporting, standardised dispute processes and a 2027 review of Ofgem's determinations guidance.

Guidance is expected in early 2027, with licence obligations from either summer 2027 or the start of the next electricity distribution price control in April 2028. Changes to Guaranteed Standards and liquidated damages follow a separate timetable, requiring legislative and code changes. Meanwhile, Ofgem expects network companies and the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to start improving voluntarily. A companion consultation on connections data, closing the same day, proposes a new Demand Capacity Register, a new Distribution Works Report and improvements to four existing datasets.

What to watch

The three initiatives are complementary: GBG aims to add capital and competition to network build, self-build gives customers more control over delivery, and the end-to-end review targets how network companies and NESO serve customers. As Ofgem acknowledges, no single intervention will solve every challenge. The immediate deadlines are 6 November 2026 for the connections experience and data consultations and 13 November 2026 for self-build. Beyond that, watch for Ofgem's iTO licence proposals and GBG's budget at the spending review. Developers with transmission connections in the pipeline should be assessing now whether self-build could work for them.