From 2 p.m. (BST) Today (July 16) Neso has confirmed an extension of the deadline for five working days network connection applications.
In a live webinar in which the window extension announced, Matt Magill, director of Engineering & customer solutions Transformation at Neso, said that there are currently more than 900 application depots in the system, with just over 200 entered submissions.
His most important message, prior to tackling the emphasized problems, was “please do”.
Neso is working on a series of further functionality fixes for the portal, he said. The most important problems identified by the operator, including “many usability problems”.
Magill also emphasized an important cause of uncertainty in battery storage developers that prevented submissions to be completed, which was a requirement to give the capacity of a potential storage system for battery energy (BESS) in megawatt hours.
Developers were worried that they would be maintained to an expense that would possibly be given years before commissioning.
Magill assured that the MWH figure that is given for Lithium-Iionbess will not be used by the operator. He explained that other types of energy storage that should not be included in the Clean Power 2030 technology classes should not be able to be able to explain as a long-term one, therefore the portal used the duration as a metric. He assured that “if you do not meet the requirement for long-term energy storage, you do not have to give a megawatt-hour figure.”
Calls on to pause the Neso’s schedule connection application
The application window for grid connections has been open for just over a week and developers report broad problems with the application portal.
The window to apply for a Gate 2 -Raster connection, by providing evidence of the readiness and strategic coordination of a project per connecting reform proposals that are accepted by OFGEM, can be concluded on July 29.
Developers who started the process, however, report problems, ranging from a bad user interface to being unable to upload evidence of documents.
In a LinkedIn message, Charles Deacon, director of Grid Consultancy Group Eclipse Power Solutions said that he “still has to meet to meet a developer who has already been able to submit the evidence that they need”.
Renewable Energy Soon Associations Renewableuc, Scottish Renewables and Solar Energy UK have an open letter to Fintan Slye, CEO of Fintan Slye, co-signed, which calls for a break in the Pate 2-entry process, which does not have the current process for submitting projects.
The letter acknowledges that Neso is working on the reported issues (although posts on LinkedIn suggest that the operator is slow to respond to complaints when they are discussed), but the “number and width of the issues does not give the sector sufficiently confidence that they can be resolved ‘in the track’ and in sufficient time for our members to meet the July 29 ‘.
The trade organizations “just have no confidence that the information collected will be of sufficient quality to undertake an accurate reorganization of the queue of the connections.”
They also claim that some solutions have already made applications with the help of ‘temporary solutions’ inaccurately.
The industry of renewable energy has been spoken about dissatisfaction with the reformed connection process, but it has resigned from the new process. While Tom Kenyon-Brown, senior storage leader at developer Renewco Power, said it in a LinkedIn post: “Neso has set a huge amount of obligations and requirements for industry as part of the reform of the connections.”
According to him, Neso did not maintain his end of the bargain.
Olly Frankland, lead of energy storage network, said via LinkedIn that members of the network also report that the portal does not work, “prevent almost all applications from being submitted”.
According to Frankland, more than 1,700 problems have been registered and the most important project data is missing.
Renewableuc has opened a logbook for gate 2, so that everyone who encounters problems can register what their problem is, the criticism of the problem and suggesting a solution. This input will be anonymous and presented to the government and Neso.
The trade associations have suggested that Neso implement an immediate break for a minimum of two weeks of the Gate 2 -entry window, to work during the break to tackle problems with developers and questions “including intensive beta tests of the portal with the help of real projects of potential applications”.
They also ask for a clock reset when reopening the entry window to submit a full three -week period.
Neso has announced that it will hold a webinar on July 16 at 2 p.m. (BST) to tackle problems with the application process.
