New rules to revamp the way power plants get connected to the UK's power grid have been proposed by Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband.

The shake-up will help new projects waiting to get a date to feed electricity into the grid to get out of the queue, and will in particular help renewable energy projects such as wind farms.

There is currently over 60 GW of new generation capacity – around 200 projects – that are waiting to be connected to the grid, including around 17 GW from renewable sources.

Ed Miliband announced as part of the Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan in July that the Government would reform the previous system of projects getting a connection date on a first come, first served basis regardless of when the project would start generating energy.


This meant some wind farms were given connection dates years after when they were due to start producing electricity.

The consultation offers industry a say on three options for how the new system will work.

The proposed scheme will also give investors confidence that projects will be given a connection date that fits in with their project development timeline.

Ed Miliband said: "Access to the electricity grid has been one of the key barriers to the generation of renewable energy in this country. We are determined to resolve this issue. That is why we took powers to do so in the Energy Act and today we are setting out our proposals.

"We need these new projects to get hooked up to the grid as soon as they are ready – both to help tackle climate change and secure our future energy supplies."

For the first time, the Government will be making the detailed reforms to grid access rules that are necessary to overcome the delays. Previously, reforms were proposed by industry and then approved or rejected by the regulator, Ofgem.

There are three proposed models that DECC is consulting on from today that build on industry and Ofgem's work over the last year.

The three models look at different ways to manage the queue and to share the cost of connecting more plants to the system that is to be expected from this system.

The models are:Connect and Manage (Socialised), Connect and Manage (Hybrid) and Connect and Manage (Shared Cost and Commitment).

Around 1 GW of renewable projects in Scotland have already been offered earlier connection dates.

(GK/BMcc)