Great Britain's transmission connection queue held 741 GW of contracted generation and storage across 2,225 projects as of 13 October 2026, yet only 87 GW was built and connected. Battery storage dominates the pipeline, and Ofgem is consulting on a new commitment fee intended to push speculative projects out of the queue sooner. Landowners should understand what this reform means for battery schemes on farmland.
The scale of the connection queue
According to the NESO TEC register, 741 GW of generation and storage is contracted to connect to the GB transmission grid across 2,225 projects. Only 87 GW is built and connected, leaving 653 GW still in the queue. Some 70.6 per cent of contracted capacity, or 523 GW, sits at the earliest Scoping stage, meaning NESO is not aware of a planning application for it. Battery storage accounts for 483.1 GW across 1,525 projects.
Solar in the queue totals 238.5 GW, of which 94.7 per cent is co-located with battery storage. Because co-located sites carry more than one technology, such projects are counted under both categories, so the technology figures overlap and do not sum to the total. The register is transmission-level and carries no per-site geography, so these are national totals rather than a site-level lookup.
Connections reform and the gate system
Under NESO's connections reform, known as First Ready, First Connected, the contracted stack is being cut to an ordered pipeline. That pipeline comprises 283 GW of Gate 2 offers out to 2035, with 132 GW connecting before 2030, while the remainder is held on a Gate 1 waiting list or removed. By June 2026 NESO had issued Gate 2 offers to 713 of the 1,223 projects in the 2030 pipeline, about 58 per cent and roughly 37 GW.
The register records a gate only once the reformed contract is countersigned. As of 13 October 2026, of the capacity not yet built, 16.4 GW across 107 projects held a countersigned Gate 2 contract, 299.6 GW across 819 projects held Gate 1, and 337.4 GW across 914 projects remained on pre-reform contracts. Holding a Gate 2 place now requires planning permission and land rights.
CMP470 and the proposed commitment fee
CMP470 is a Connection and Use of System Code modification proposal that would introduce an Oversubscribed Technologies Commitment Fee for certain oversubscribed technologies. It was raised on 20 March 2026 by Field Energy and has been granted urgent progression status by Ofgem. Around 90 GW of operational and Gate 2 battery storage capacity exists against an estimated Clean Power 2030 requirement of around 29 GW by 2035.
The mechanism would set a floor on the security projects are required to provide and on cancellation charges. The fee is triggered when total operational and Gate 2 capacity for a technology exceeds the relevant capacity target by more than 50 per cent, provided that target exceeds 5 GW. It starts at £3,000 per MW for the first six-monthly period, rising to £5,000 per MW and then in £5,000 increments to a cap of £25,000 per MW.
The floor increases if oversubscription does not fall by at least 25 per cent in each subsequent six-monthly period, and the fee is disapplied once oversubscription falls below 25 per cent. It would apply to all projects of the relevant oversubscribed technology with a Gate 2 offer up until energisation, including co-located projects, subject to an exemption where the oversubscribed technology connects after the other technology and has minimal network impact. Ofgem's minded-to position is to approve, but it has not made a final decision.
What the changes mean for land and developers
Battery storage is the only technology currently overshooting its target enough to trigger the fee, though the mechanism is built to apply to any oversubscribed technology class in future. Developers currently post a financial guarantee worth 10 per cent of their cancellation charge once planning consent is secured. Ofgem has described the queue as holding capacity that makes network infrastructure planning difficult and wants it to reflect real projects.
Tweaks under discussion include capping the fee at a project's existing security exposure, waiving it once construction starts, and tightening the exemption available to certain co-located projects. Industry stakeholders had until October to respond, and if approved the code modification would likely take effect around July next year. Because Gate 2 places depend on planning permission and land rights, secured land near available grid capacity is the scarce asset, and connection dates run into the 2030s.
Key Takeaways
741 GW of generation and storage is contracted to the GB transmission grid, but only 87 GW is built and connected.
70.6 per cent of contracted capacity remains at the earliest Scoping stage, with no planning application known to NESO.
Battery storage accounts for 483.1 GW of queued capacity, against an estimated Clean Power 2030 requirement of around 29 GW by 2035.
CMP470 would introduce a commitment fee starting at £3,000 per MW and rising to a cap of £25,000 per MW for oversubscribed technologies such as battery storage.
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