Grid Connection Feasibility Study
for Developers and Investors

Pursuing an unviable site may only cost £thousands in wasted site acquisition resource, but the opportunity cost – backing a winner elsewhere – will be £millions

ENERGY STORAGE

Where Roadnight Taylor can help

By avoiding unviable sites you’ll:

  • Save on in-house and external site finder costs

  • Save on failed connection application fees

  • Save on legal and professional fees

  • Free up cash and resource to focus on viable sites

By focusing on viable sites you’ll:

  • Accept more connection offers

  • Enter into more option agreements

  • Achieve planning consent on more sites

  • Reach financial close on more schemes

The difference in numbers:

  • More than 2.5GW of viable connection offers per annum

  • >80% of connection offers accepted

  • Hundreds of wasted applications avoided

  • Five times the application success rate of the market

The technical, commercial or regulatory key that will unlock the grid at transmission or distribution level – and so the potential in a site – is often obscured from all but those with the very deepest of expertise.  Finding it can be worth £millions.

The technical, commercial or regulatory key that will unlock  the grid – and so the potential in a site – is often obscured from all but those with the very deepest of expertise.  Finding it can be worth £millions.

The challenge

  • Nationally, about 15% of HV and EHV generation connection offers are accepted by developers, in part because:

  • Many applications are submitted on the wrong part of the network because:

    • developers rely on network operators’ heat maps; and
    • developers rely on budget estimates; but
    • heat maps and budget estimates give as many false positives as they do false negatives

  • As frequently, the wrong application is submitted on the right part of the network

  • DNO System Planners have neither the time nor the authority to find and advise you of a connection solution – pre application – in spite of most having the inclination

  • It stands to reason that System Planners would not all have the combination of technical, commercial and regulatory expertise and experience – and the tenacity – to consistently identify a technically feasible and cost-viable connection

The solution

What we do

Working at both transmission and distribution levels, we carry out a thorough, skilled, detailed and efficient study of publicly-available network data in order to rapidly deduce whether a technically-feasible and commercially-viable connection can be achieved – and, as appropriate, liaise with the relevant network operator’s System Planner to augment our study and gain additional network intelligence.

Short of carrying out a feasibility study for many £thousands – and in a timeframe that works for few serious developers  – DNO and TO System Planners are unable to do this work.  Few developers, if any, have the necessary in-house capability to deliver the requisite results.

Our feasibility studies are trusted and valued by a rollcall of the UK’s leading energy scheme developers – the smart money. Some leading developers have built substantial pipelines via our feasibility service.

Jake Dunn

“Roadnight Taylor’s specialist engineers have carried out a number of feasibility studies for Vattenfall’s schemes, giving us an incredibly high success-rate.

Significantly, for me, is their ability to take our vision and commercial creativity, and deliver viable, sophisticated connection solutions for complex, multi-technology colocation projects (wind, solar, storage and hydrogen electrolysis). They are extraordinary.”

Jake Dunn, leading UK expert in co-location 
Commercial Development Manager, Vattenfall Wind Power

Who does the work?

Our extraordinary team of Connectologists® have the hands-on technical, commercial and regulatory experience of the highest order – having held responsibility for many thousands of EHV offers and applications.  They are tenacious, diligent, self-assured and professional – and they are on your side.

Pete Aston

Pete Aston
Specialist Connections Engineer

Catherine Cleary

Catherine Cleary
Specialist Connections Engineer

Philip Bale - Roadnight Taylor

Philip Bale
Specialist Connections Engineer

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Some of our current developer feasibility study projects

  • Transmission licence exemption podcast

The Connectologist® discuss Ofgem's Call for Input on demand connections reform — focusing on the legal ambiguity preventing demand customers from owning high-voltage transmission assets

  • Rachael Eynon joins Roadnight Taylor

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Rachael Eynon who joins us as a Connectologist from NESO

  • Grid News and Views podcast 17

Connectologists® cover Ofgem's Demand Reform call for input, transmission delays, Gate 2 offers, staged connections, and SGT charging developments.

  • Connection Agreement Review Webinar

Join the Connectologists® to walk through what tends to change between Connection Offer and Agreement, where commercial and operational risk can quietly creep in, and what's worth checking before you sign

  • Podcast: Grid News and Views 16

Connectologists® Nikki Pillinger, Alex Ikonic, and Philip Bale examine the latest Connections Reform delays and the practical challenges developers face navigating milestones, technical limits uncertainty, and escalating project delivery costs

Connectologists® Kyle Murchie, Nikki Pillinger, and Philip Bale explore two modifications addressing network boundary charges