At the end of September, the government announced Great British Grid (GBG), a new publicly owned body that will help accelerate the development of the UK’s electricity infrastructure network. This organisation is announced to work within the already established Great British Energy (GBE), to scale up grid investment alongside implementing wider regulatory adjustments.

To understand its role, it helps to look at the problem GBG aims to address. Currently, connection delays are one of the biggest challenges facing the UK’s transition to cleaner energy. Hundreds of renewable energy, battery storage, and commercial projects are stuck in multi-year queues waiting to connect to an electricity network that wasn't built for today's demand.

What does it aim to achieve?

The aim of the Great British Grid is to speed up new grid connections and improve energy security by bringing together public and private investment to upgrade electricity transmission networks.

By removing some of the biggest barriers to new sustainable infrastructure it seeks to make grid access quicker and more cost-effective. For businesses, this will help projects such as on-site generation, battery storage, and site expansions move forward faster. Ultimately, connecting clean power without long delays helps lower costs by making cheaper energy available sooner, helping bring UK energy bills in line with European neighbours.

Key expected outcomes include:

• Improved access to grid capacity over time, making it easier for customers to connect additional equipment to their existing connections without lengthy applications.
• Better support for onsite generation and battery storage, helping existing projects continue to run efficiently while reducing barriers for future installations.
• More options around how connections are delivered, resulting in shorter wait times for new connections or amendments, as well as reduced overall costs for these services.

How will it work?

Working as part of Great British Energy, GBG aims to deliver these improvements through three key steps:

• Combining public and private investment: GBG will bring government funds together with private investment to help deliver essential grid upgrades sooner.
• Opening projects to more builders: Major grid upgrades will now be open for competitive bidding rather than given solely to local network operators. This allows independent companies, and GBG itself, to bid for projects, lowering costs and speeding up construction.
• Making self-build connections easier: Rather than waiting for local network companies to schedule and build connection work, new rules allow businesses to hire approved contractors to construct their own grid equipment, cutting through network queues and speeding up site energisation.

What can businesses expect?

We’ve already witnessed some of the results of GBG’s influence, as Ofgem has launched a consultation on the future of self-build grid connections. If approved, this would allow businesses and developers to construct more of their own electricity transmission connection infrastructure as part of a project’s development, instead of waiting for the Transmission Network Operator to complete this work on their behalf. It is projected that these changes could result in savings of approximately 20% on connection costs compared to current arrangements, as well as reduced timescales for connections work, with between one and two years saved on average.

It’s worth bearing in mind that smaller agricultural projects connect to distribution-level networks rather than transmission networks, so they will not directly benefit from these proposals. Nevertheless, this consultation signals the broader direction we hope GBG will deliver in the long term. The Ofgem consultation closes on 13 November.

The announcement of GBG signals the government’s intention to invest in the electricity network and its desire to improve how new connections are managed for everyone. However, we will have to wait for future updates on specific initiatives that GBG is influencing or developing before we know exactly how business owners stand to benefit.

While the elements of the proposal are not yet set in stone, the future looks positive for those looking to install onsite generation or change how and when they use their power. Increasing the amount of locally generated power reduces our reliance on the national transmission network to move energy from large power stations to end users. Electricity used locally doesn’t attract as many standing charges as energy sent over long distances, so bill payers could see some financial relief in time. Expanding local generation also means we are less reliant on energy imported from overseas, helping to develop national energy security while contributing to a reduction in overall energy costs.

As the country continues its steady shift towards renewable generation as the primary form of energy production, we hope that GBG’s initiatives will support those looking to change how they produce and use energy, for their own benefit as well as their local community’s. As further announcements are made, we will continue to report on what they could mean for you.

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