THE GRIDTEAMAI NUMBER · No. 1 · November 2026
The grid queue: 738 GW asked, 283 GW got a date
Before NESO's connections reform, projects adding up to 738 GW were queuing to connect to Great Britain's electricity grid, about four times the capacity the Clean Power 2030 plan needs. The reform, decided on 8 December 2025, gave 283 GW of generation and storage a dated connection offer and parked the rest. Here is where the queue stood, what came out of it, and what the register shows today. Every figure traces to a NESO, Ofgem or government document, dated.
738 GW
The queue before reform
NESO, 8 July 2025. The same official series read 722 GW at the end of September 2024 and 739 GW in December 2024.
283 GW
Given a dated offer by the reform
NESO, 8 December 2025: 132 GW due by 2030, 151 GW due 2031 to 2035.
204 to 231 GW
What Clean Power 2030 needs installed, in total
DESNZ Clean Power 2030 Action Plan ranges, as totalled by NESO.
What was in the queue
The queue is the list of projects that hold a contract to connect to the transmission or distribution network but have not yet connected. It grew tenfold in five years. Government and Ofgem counted it at 722 GW at the end of September 2024, the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan put it at 739 GW that December, and NESO used 738 GW in July 2025 when it opened the reform's evidence window. Those three figures are the same count, taken on different days; they include demand projects and projects on the distribution networks as well as the transmission grid. Set against them, the whole of Great Britain's installed generation and storage was about 111 GW, and the Clean Power 2030 plan calls for 204 to 231 GW installed by the end of the decade. NESO's own phrase was "around four times Great Britain's projected need by 2030".
What the reform did
On 8 December 2025 NESO published the results of its "Gate 2 to Whole Queue" process. Projects that met the readiness test and fitted the 2030 and 2035 plans moved into a delivery pipeline with a dated offer: 132 GW aligned with Clean Power 2030, and a further 151 GW for 2031 to 2035, 283 GW in all, plus 99 GW of transmission-connected demand. Projects that were ready but not needed for the plan went to Gate 1, with no connection date: about 217 GW, of which batteries were 153 GW. More than 300 GW of the old queue did not move forward at all.
Table 1: The delivery pipeline by technology (GW)
Source: NESO press release, 8 December 2025, "Connections delivery pipeline by technology". Columns exactly as NESO published them.
| Technology | Prioritised for 2030 | Prioritised for 2035 | Gate 1 (not prioritised) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery storage | 34.5 | 48.7 | 152.9 |
| Offshore wind | 32.1 | 37.8 | 4.5 |
| Solar | 29.9 | 29.1 | 35.9 |
| Onshore wind | 13.1 | 4.8 | 13.4 |
| Transmission-connected demand | 11.8 | 86.7 | 0.0 |
| Long-duration storage | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| Unabated gas | 4.2 | 1.8 | 3.8 |
| Interconnectors | 3.6 | 9.7 | 1.2 |
| Nuclear | 3.3 | 3.3 | 0.0 |
| Low-carbon dispatchable power | 3.3 | 9.7 | 0.0 |
| Non-GB generation | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.0 |
| Other (tidal, hydro, other) | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Total, generation and storage (demand row excluded) | 132 | 151 | 217 |
Gate 1 excludes projects that chose not to be prioritised and projects that did not apply. NESO's table columns sum to 216.3 GW; NESO's webinar deck states 217 GW. We print 217.
Where it stands today
NESO has not revised the 283 GW. What has moved is the paperwork behind it. By 10 June 2026 NESO and the network companies had issued offers to 713 of the 1,223 projects due by 2030, worth about 37 GW. The deadline for the rest of the 2030 offers was moved to 31 October 2026, and the 2031 to 2035 offers to 31 January 2027, with Ofgem's agreement on 2 October 2026. Ofgem's September 2026 assessment of NESO's performance records that the queue was cut "from approximately 750 GW to 200-250 GW" but that the reform was not delivered on time.
The transmission register tells the same story from the bottom up. On 13 October 2026 it listed 1,840 unbuilt entries adding up to 604 GW of new transmission-connected capacity. Of that, 293 GW already carried a Gate 1 label, 15 GW a countersigned Gate 2 offer, and 296 GW no gate yet: an offer issued but not yet signed, or still to come.
604 GW
unbuilt capacity on the transmission register, 13 October 2026
293 GW
of it already labelled Gate 1
15 GW
with a countersigned Gate 2 offer so far
Table 2: Unbuilt transmission contracts by technology, 13 October 2026 (GW, number of entries)
Source: NESO TEC register, file dated 13 October 2026, entries with any status other than Built, new capacity summed. Transmission-connected and large embedded projects only; this register does not include distribution-only projects or demand.
| Technology | GW | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| Battery storage | 188.1 | 732 |
| Solar (with or without storage) | 186.1 | 526 |
| Offshore wind | 96.8 | 107 |
| Gas | 41.9 | 30 |
| Onshore wind (with or without storage) | 33.5 | 314 |
| Nuclear | 23.7 | 22 |
| Onshore wind with solar | 18.4 | 64 |
| Pumped storage | 10.8 | 17 |
| Other | 4.8 | 28 |
| Total | 604.1 | 1,840 |
Figures rounded to 0.1 GW; the years sum to 604.2 GW.
Scotland
Scotland holds 155 GW of the 604 GW: 82 GW in the north of Scotland (SSEN Transmission's area) and 73 GW in the south (SP Transmission's). Offshore wind is 36.5 GW of it, batteries 65 GW, onshore wind 26.5 GW, pumped storage 10.4 GW and solar 12 GW. The largest entries are the ScotWind and INTOG offshore wind farms, each with a connection date in the early 2030s and almost all still at the scoping stage, and a new generation of pumped-storage schemes in the Highlands.
Table 3: The ten largest unbuilt Scottish entries on the register, 13 October 2026
| Project | Developer | Area | Connection site | MW | Contracted date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machair Offshore Wind Farm | ScottishPower Renewables | South | Machair offshore substation | 2,000 | Sep 2033 | Scoping |
| Marram Wind | Marramwind Ltd | North | Longside 400kV | 2,000 | Oct 2033 | Scoping |
| Arven Offshore Wind Farm | Arven Offshore Wind Farm Ltd | North | Northern Shetland 400kV | 1,800 | Oct 2033 | Scoping |
| Glen Earrach pumped storage | Glen Earrach Energy | North | Glen Earrach 400kV | 1,800 | Oct 2035 | Scoping |
| North-East Offshore Hybrid Asset | National Grid Interconnector Holdings | North | Kintore | 1,800 | Jun 2037 | Scoping, Gate 1 |
| Havbredey | Havbredey Ltd | North | New Dounreay 400kV | 1,500 | Oct 2033 | Scoping, Gate 1 |
| OWPL Windfarm | Offshore Wind Power Ltd | North | Banniskirk 400kV | 1,500 | Dec 2030 | Scoping |
| Phoenix 1B Offshore Wind Farm | Morven Offshore Wind | South | near Branxton 400kV | 1,500 | Oct 2033 | Scoping |
| Fearna pumped storage 2 | Fearna PSH Ltd | North | Fearna 400kV | 1,495 | Nov 2036 | Awaiting consents |
| Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm | Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm Ltd | North | Greens 400kV | 1,400 | Oct 2032 | Scoping |
"North" is SSEN Transmission's area, "South" is SP Transmission's. Where a project appears in the register as two stages, the larger stage is shown. The full Scottish list is available from press@gridteamai.com.
Method and sources
- The queue before reform: 722 GW is from the DESNZ and Ofgem open letter "Aligning grid connections with strategic plans", 5 November 2024 (correct at end-September 2024, transmission and distribution, including demand). 739 GW is from the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, DESNZ, 13 December 2024. 738 GW is from NESO's press release "Clean energy projects to be prioritised in grid connections reform as evidence window opens", 8 July 2025. NESO's later documents say "over 770 GW" (August 2025) and "exceeding 800 GW" (October 2025); we use 738 GW because it is the figure NESO put against the Clean Power comparison.
- The reform results: NESO press release "NESO implements electricity grid connection reforms to unlock investment in Great Britain", 8 December 2025, and the NESO webinar deck "Connections Reform Webinar: Delivery pipeline outcomes", 8 December 2025. The zonal detail is in NESO's "Connections Reform Detailed Results Data", December 2025.
- Clean Power 2030 need: DESNZ, "Clean Power 2030 Action Plan: A new era of clean electricity", 13 December 2024, Table 1; the 204 to 231 GW total is NESO's sum of those ranges (NESO press release, 20 December 2024, repeated 8 December 2025).
- Progress since: NESO press release "NESO and electricity networks issue offers to over half of energy projects needed by 2030", 10 June 2026; Ofgem, "Agreement to a further alternative timetable for issuing Gate 2 Phase 1 connection offers", 2 October 2026; Ofgem, "End-scheme assessment of NESO's BP3 performance", 2 September 2026.
- Today's register: NESO Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) register, file dated 13 October 2026, NESO Open Data Licence. We count entries whose status is not Built and sum the "MW Increase / Decrease" column. The register covers transmission-connected and large embedded generation and storage, not distribution-only projects or demand, so it is not the same count as the 738 GW. Gate labels appear in the register only once an offer is countersigned.
- Technology groups in Tables 2 and 3 are ours: an entry listed as storage with solar is counted as solar; storage with onshore wind as onshore wind.
Cite as
GridteamAI, "The grid queue: 738 GW asked, 283 GW got a date", The GridteamAI Number No. 1, November 2026, gridteamai.com/numbers/grid-queue-2026, from NESO, Ofgem and DESNZ sources dated 2024 to 2026.
Next number: February 2027, the Contracts for Difference AR8 results decoded.