{"id":8031,"date":"2026-09-28T13:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/?p=8031"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:42:18","slug":"behind-ofgems-new-fee-reducing-battery-storage-backlog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/industry-news\/behind-ofgems-new-fee-reducing-battery-storage-backlog\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind Ofgem\u2019s New Fee Reducing Battery Storage Backlog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>Battery developers to be charged to hold their spot in the grid connection queue<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ofgem has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofgem.gov.uk\/consultation\/connection-and-use-system-code-cusc-cmp470-introducing-oversubscribed-technologies-commitment-fee-otcf\"> opened a consultation<\/a> on a new &#8220;pay to stay&#8221; fee for battery energy storage systems (BESS) sitting in Great Britain&#8217;s grid connection queue. It calls this move a &#8220;major intervention&#8221; needed to sort the serious projects from placeholders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The queue problem by numbers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The scale here is genuinely wild. Even after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine.com\/2026\/09\/19\/uk-regulator-plans-bess-fees-to-cut-grid-connection-queue\/\">NESO&#8217;s connections reform process<\/a> cleared out 40% of grid-level battery capacity from the old queue, there&#8217;s still roughly 83 GW of storage prioritized for connection. Some <a href=\"https:\/\/modoenergy.com\/research\/gb-great-britain-bess-connection-queue-cmp470-battery-energy-storage-reform-\">estimates<\/a> put it over 90 GW of battery storage.<br><br>Note that this is against a Clean Power 2030 target of just 29 GW for 2035. About a threefold overshoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either way you slice it, Britain has far more battery capacity queued up than the system needs. And nobody, not NESO, not Ofgem, not network planners, can easily tell which of those projects are real and which are speculative \u201cparkers\u201d to just preserve options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How the fee works<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This ambiguity is what Ofgem&#8217;s proposed fix (CMP470), is designed to solve. The mechanism is called the Oversubscribed Technologies Commitment Fee (OTCF), and the logic is simple: make it cost something meaningful to hold a queue spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It barely does now. Developers only have to post a financial guarantee worth 10% of their cancellation charge once planning consent is secured. That\u2019s a low bar for holding a grid connection without a firm commitment to actually build.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the new proposal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Projects must demonstrate a minimum financial commitment starting at \u00a33,000 per MW<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This could climb as high as \u00a325,000 per MW if the technology class stays significantly oversubscribed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Battery storage is the only technology currently overshooting its target enough to trigger the fee. Yet the mechanism is built to apply to any oversubscribed technology class in future<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Ofgem says&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Eleanor Warburton, Director for Energy System Design and Development, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofgem.gov.uk\/press-release\/ofgem-moves-free-grid-capacity-tackling-excess-battery-projects\">puts the rationale bluntly<\/a>: the queue currently holds the sort of capacity that makes it nearly impossible to plan network infrastructure with confidence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She believes the queue needs to reflect <strong>real <\/strong>projects. So the new financial commitment should push unlikely customers toward the exit sooner than later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Part of a bigger pattern<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn&#8217;t happening in isolation. It follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofgem.gov.uk\/transparency-document\/connections-reform-and-battery-capacity-update\">joint DESNZ-Ofgem warning<\/a> back in April flagging the same oversupply problem. And it echoes a similar commitment-fee consultation Ofgem ran in July for speculative data centre projects. This looks like a genuine policy pattern over a sudden battery crackdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What happens next<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The consultation leaves room for negotiation with possible tweaks under discussion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Capping the fee at a project&#8217;s existing security exposure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Waiving it once construction starts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tightening an exemption currently available to certain co-located projects<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Industry stakeholders have until October to respond. And if approved, the code modification would likely take effect around July next year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For developers with genuinely bankable projects, this is probably a manageable cost of doing business. But for the ones banking on optionality, the headspace is now way shorter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Battery developers to be charged to hold their spot in the grid connection queue Ofgem has opened a consultation on a new &#8220;pay to stay&#8221; fee for battery energy storage systems (BESS) sitting in Great Britain&#8217;s grid connection queue. It calls this move a &#8220;major intervention&#8221; needed to sort the serious projects from placeholders.&nbsp; The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[225,224,226,176],"class_list":["post-8031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-battery","tag-ofgem","tag-uk-bess","tag-uk-solar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8033,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions\/8033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finulent.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}