The Queue: Why Clean Power Waits Years to Connect
Britain has built more wind farms, solar farms and battery sites than ever before. Most of them are not running yet - not because they failed, but because they are standing in a queue. As of July 2025, Great Britain's electricity connections queue stood at 738 gigawatts, more than three to four times the clean generation the country actually needs by 2030.
It covers Ofgem's 15 April 2025 approval of the TMO4+ reform package, the 56-day standstill period before it took effect on 10 June 2025, and the new model - 'first ready and needed, first connected' - built on two industry code changes, CMP434 and CMP435. It explains how NESO sorted the queue on 8 December 2025: 283 gigawatts of generation and storage passed into a firm Gate 2 queue, while roughly 217 gigawatts were deprioritised to an indicative Gate 1. Battery storage came out far ahead of its own target; solar lost capacity on balance. And it follows a newer, faster-growing queue behind the first one: data-centre demand connections, which grew from about 41 gigawatts to around 125 gigawatts in a single year, with Ofgem's fix for that queue still an open consultation as of this video.
Educational documentary. Not financial or investment advice.
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Sources and credits
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons)
- Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, English Channel off Sussex, UK: Andy Li, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARampion_Wind_Farm_2023-07-09_162139.jpg
- Whitelee Wind Farm, onshore wind turbines, East Renfrewshire, Scotland: rachelalienergy, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWhitelee_Wind_Farm_turbines.jpg
- Fairham electricity substation, Nottinghamshire, UK: Aethonatic, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFairham_Substation_-_24_September_2026.jpg
- High-voltage electricity transmission pylon (generic, illustrates grid connection infrastructure): Novoklimov, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AElectricity_pylons%2C_Ukraine_176.jpg
- Ground-mounted solar farm (generic, illustrates solar capacity in the connection queue): Wikideas1, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASolar_farm_in_Wisconsin_01.jpg
- Grid-scale battery energy storage facility (generic, illustrates battery storage in the connection queue): Sig. Chiocciola, CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AStanton_Battery_Energy_Storage_%28SBES%29_10-8-2024.jpg
Primary sources
- NESO, 'Clean energy projects to be prioritised in grid connections reform as evidence window opens', neso.energy, 8 July 2025 - the 738GW queue figure and its comparison to the Clean Power 2030 need.
- NESO, 'NESO implements electricity grid connection reforms to unlock investment in Great Britain', 10 June 2025 - the reform going live.
- NESO, 'NESO and electricity networks issue offers to over half of energy projects needed by 2030', 10 June 2026 - the 37GW/713 of 1,223 projects result, corroborated by Reuters.
- Ofgem, Decision on Connections Reform Package (TMO4+) and Gate 2 Criteria Methodology Final Decision, 15 April 2025 - the approval date, CMP434 and CMP435.
- Ofgem blog, 'Moving to a reformed grid', 8 December 2025 - the reform's acknowledged unfinished work.
- UK Government, Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, December 2024 - the 200-225GW generation and storage target.
- Solar Power Portal, reporting Ofgem, on the 756GW (February 2025) and 738GW (July 2025) queue figures.
- Burges Salmon, 'Grid connection queue reform (TMO4+ approval): key points to be aware of', and DLA Piper's energy regulatory update, 17 July 2025 - the 56-day standstill period.
- CIBSE Journal, 'Zombie projects holding up renewable grid connections' and 'Delayed projects to lose place in Grid queue' (2023) - the National Grid ESO 60-70% estimate and the 2023 milestone reform.
- House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee proceedings, c. 2023, and committee press coverage - the ten-to-fifteen-year wait times.
- The Lawyer, Slaughter and May, and Gowling WLG, 2026 reporting - the data-centre demand connection queue and Ofgem's 29 July 2026 consultation.
Not regulated financial advice.