How to choose the right grid consultant

This article was updated on 1 June 2022

With the renewable energy and energy storage industry now awash with developers and consultants, how can landowners looking to invest in energy schemes be confident that they are making the right decision and investing their time and money in the right company or consultant?

How to choose a grid consultant

Most grid consultants are purely technical. They have sufficient technical expertise to submit a grid application form. That level of expertise is ubiquitous. However, the expertise to stack the odds in the landowner’s favour to multiply their chances of getting a scheme is far from universal.  A landowner needs a grid consultant who:

• understands grid strategy and tactics
• can identify the precise connection solution for the local part of the network, and sell that solution to the network operators’ engineers in spite of the engineers’ experience and preferences
• has relationships with the network operators’ management teams and board in order to escalate on behalf of landowners where appropriate
• has relationships with the best, most credible developers of all the most relevant renewables technologies
• can then maximise landowners’ chances of achieving a scheme
• is paid on the landowner’s success in achieving a scheme

Link the application to the success of the scheme

Putting it into perspective, there is a about a 1 in 20 chance of a site being suitable for a large-scale renewables project and a grid application being successful. Paying £2,000 to £10,000 on an application is a significant gamble on a 1 in 20 chance. The application may not be for the right technology and the right capacity, and the landowner could be throwing away good money.

Our approach is to link our fee to the success of the scheme – a “no-win no-fee” basis. It is in both the landowners’ and our interests to ensure we are putting in an application for the right technology, at the right capacity and which utilises the right connection solution. And we go to the edges of our expertise and work with a network operator to get an accepted grid application.

Follow a scheme from start to finish

We stack those 1 in 20 odds in the landowner’s favour and follow the scheme through from start to finish. With our renumeration completely tied to the scheme’s success, we will only be working with developers and operators who will maximise the chances of delivering a successful scheme.

It worries us how many landowners approach us who have a grid offer in their own name and now don’t know what to do. These landowners have paid for a consultant to put in a grid application, have a grid offer and now aren’t being offered the support that they need – even to establish if the offer is genuinely viable, let alone the support to go to the next stage and safely transact that offer (if viable). It’s a complicated, and potentially very expensive, process if you go it alone. These landowners are in confusion and desperation and have come to us to get them out of their difficulties. To avoid that, take specialist advice from the right grid connection consultant that meets all the right criteria from the outset.