By Jack Mendel
Developers in three West London boroughs have been warned they may not have electricity capacity for new homes until 2030.
The Greater London Assembly (GLA) wrote to developers in Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow this week, airing concerns about “availability of electricity capacity” which could stall new homes.
It said power companies were warning developers “electricity connections will not be available for their sites until 2027 to 2030, once National Grid has undertaken upgrades to increase capacity”.
Sadiq Khan’s London administration added that the lack of capacity is “ largely due to a rapid influx of batteries and data centres” which place demands on electricity supplies.
According to the FT, a recent application to the distribution network claimed there wouldn’t be capacity for new electricity connections in the boroughs until 2035.
The GLA outlined that electricity firms are not allowed by the regulator OFGEM to prioritise certain types of developments – with allocation “on a first-come first-served basis”, meaning developers, who apply for electricity capacity later on in the design process, will miss out.
“There is a risk that this problem does not materialise for housing projects until plans for these projects are more advanced.”
While saying the GLA is working with the National Grid to sort the problem out, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he “is very concerned” that the “electricity capacity constraints..are creating a significant challenge for developers securing timely connections to the electricity network, which could affect the delivery of thousands of much-needed homes.”
The Mayor wrote to the government asking for a meeting but he said the request was declined.
Urging ministers to tackle the problem, Khan’s team said it is “working closely with the network providers responsible, to seek solutions to mitigate the potential delays and unlock the issue.”
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Levelling Up have been approached for comment.
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