22nd November 2023, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published a Transmission Acceleration Action Plan in response to the Electricity Network Commissioner’s August 2023 report on accelerating the build time for new transmission infrastructure, which included a set of 43 recommendations. The government accepted the Commissioner’s recommendations in all areas, and in some cases seeks to go further.
Alongside this policy paper, DESNZ and Ofgem published a Connections Action Plan to speed up connections to the electricity network, which lays out the basis and plan for a new ‘first-ready, first-connected’ approach, to replace the current ‘first-come, first-served’ basis.