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

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.

Why we do it

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.

Who buys this service

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.

“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
Specialist Connections Engineer