Renewable energy developers will have to secure landowner permission to build assets or face their connection application being rejected, Ofgem has confirmed.
The energy regulator has approved a new code modification which will require developers to obtain a landowner Letter of Authority (LoA) before applying for a connection agreement.
Under the current system developers are not required to inform landowners that they have applied to the Electricity System Operator (ESO) to build either wind or solar generation or energy storage infrastructure on their property.
To date LoAs have only been voluntary, with only 26 submitted to the ESO in the last 12 months.
The new modification, which comes into effect on 28 March, is designed to stop the practice where under-developed schemes get a connections contract, which under the current rules cannot be terminated, holding up more advanced projects.
Ofgem is aware of cases where a connection offer has been made for a project on a designated piece of land but the owner has not agreed they will afford any land rights to the applicant to allow them to build and also is not even aware that the applicant is seeking to build a project on their land.
Jack Presley Abbott, Ofgem’s deputy director, energy systems management & security, said: “This decision is another key step in our package of reforms to speed up the electricity connections process.
“It calls time on speculative, unrealistic or unviable projects joining the connections queue and holding up projects that are ready to proceed. The new letter of authority process requires developers to produce documented evidence that they have started formal discussions to secure the land required.
“This will stop the current practice of developers securing connection offers, before getting agreement that they can build on this land, which blocks other, viable, projects from connecting. The message is clear: if your project is not ready, you can’t enter the queue.”
According to the latest figures there was 514GW of new capacity with transmission connection contracts on the queue at the end of January 2024 – an increase of more than 250GW in the last 12 months. This is up from 406GW at the end of September 2023.
The queue for transmission generation and storage connection is growing at c.30GW a month.
In total, the ESO estimates that 60% to 70% of schemes seeking connections fail to materialise and fail to connect.
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