By Nicholas Earl
Ofgem has published its investment plan for transmission services designed to connect more renewable projects to the grid.
The watchdog has unveiled the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework, which streamlines the onshore transmission approval process.
It is also designed to ensure robust consumer protection, to allow network infrastructure to be built faster.
Ofgem has also released an update on its new pilot programme for Multiple Purpose Interconnectors (MPIs), subsea electricity cables able to connect Britain to neighbouring markets and also connecting offshore generation to shore.
The British Energy Security Strategy set out the Government’s ambition to connect up to 50GW of offshore generation to the electricity network by the end of the decade.
Reaching this ambition will require significant reinforcements to the onshore electricity transmission network and a change to the current regulatory framework, in order to accelerate delivery of large projects.
Last month, National Grid boss John Pettigrew warned it would need to build seven times as much infrastructure over the current decade as it has constructed in the past 32 years to meet the country’s renewable energy goals.
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