The government is to consult on the reintroduction of design and assessment fees for connection requests in the hope it will cut the number of speculative inquiries distribution network operators (DNOs) must process.
The Energy Networks Association (ENA) submitted a proposal to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc) that fees be allowed to reflect the cost of processing enquiries in December 2014.
In Ofgem’s update on improving the efficiency of connections Decc said it would “seek further evidence on the case… and will be discussing this with stakeholders”.
The ENA said the move would cut the high number of speculative requests that DNOs are obliged to process and allow them to improve the quality of their response to genuine requests.
DNOs are obliged to provide a quote to all connection requests within three months but this is being used by customers to locate the cheapest connection point through multiple quotes.
The ENA’s proposal would allow the cost of speculative requests to be borne by the customer themself, rather than being spread amongst the projects that do proceed.
A spokesperson for the ENA said: “Many network operators are inundated with multiple speculative applications which are never progressed.
“Unless this anomaly is addressed, this issue will limit the connection opportunities for non-speculative applicants.”
The ENA added that its proposals “have the support of the distributed generation community and we look forward to Decc’s consultation on this.”
Assessment and design fees were abandoned by DNOs before 2010 after it became apparent that applying a charge before an offer has been accepted might contravene the Electricity Act.
The ENA is also set to consult on a series of “milestones” that would be introduced to connection contracts to free up capacity as part of Ofgem’s work to use existing network capacity more efficiently.
Read Utility Week’s analysis, ‘Solving the connections conundrum’ here