What’s happened:
The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has issued its first Gate 2 grid connection offer to a project in Scotland with ‘protected’ Status, which is assigned to projects that had already significantly progressed prior to the reform.
Gate 2 was approved in April 2025 to remove the backlog of the connection queue, a key barrier to the UK reaching their ambitious 2030 clean power targets. The reform looks to do this by reorganising the queue based on readiness.
What this means:
The offer, which is expected to be followed by further offers for protected transmission and large embedded projects until mid-April 2026, is a positive step for renewable projects waiting to connect to the grid.
However, this follows delays in expected connection dates and warnings from Ofgem that 62% of projects could be at risk of missing their connection dates. The current grid queue remains at 738GW, which is far higher than the 200-225GW required to reach the UK’s clean power goals by 2030, according to NESO.
Looking forward:
This demonstrates that the reform is yet to reduce the backlog. We expect delays will continue to present barriers to the renewables sector.
One issue, highlighted at the ‘Solar investment & finance’ conference held by Informa markets, is that the reform will lead to a procurement rush once projects receive their connection dates. We will continue to follow grid risks in the UK and how this is impacting developers across the sector.
Grid reform is already changing how and when developers hire. If you are reassessing your team plans for 2026 and beyond, we would be happy to share what we are seeing across the market: hello@mintselection.com
Follow Mint Selection on LinkedIn for weekly updates