Connections, Capacity & Clean Power: Britain's Grid Reform - NESO

The scope of the National Energy System Operator - or NESO - has expanded from running the electricity system to planning Britain's whole energy system across electricity, gas and hydrogen, all while delivering connections reform and steering toward Clean Power 2030. That transformation is reshaping everything from how Britain plans its grid 20 years out to how it keeps the lights on tonight.

Ed Porter is joined by Kayte O'Neill, Chief Operating Officer at the National Energy System Operator (NESO), for a wide-ranging conversation on the biggest changes in the GB power market: grid connections reform, the battery storage queue, zero-carbon grid operation, and the next wave of electricity market design.

They cover:

• Connections reform and the UK grid queue — how NESO has cut the 800GW queue down to a deliverable pipeline and what Gate 2 means for developers over the next 12 months.
• The battery storage connections queue and how NESO is thinking about attrition, bay sharing and co-location.
• Zero-carbon operation of the GB grid and why gas plants still run on windy, sunny days (stability services, inertia, grid-forming inverters)
• NESO's expanded whole-system role - strategic planning across electricity, gas and hydrogen, and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP)
• Reformed National Pricing, data centre demand connections, AI in the control room, and the £40bn/year investment unlock at stake.

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Transcript available here

Hosted by Ed Porter, Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Intro: what people get wrong about NESO
• 04:15 - NESO's new role in gas security of supply
• 05:49 - The summer outlook and GB's low-demand operability problem
• 07:48 - Why gas still runs on the GB grid on windy, sunny days
• 09:49 - Stability services and the path to zero-carbon grid operation
• 11:03 - The 97.7% zero-carbon record on 1 April 2025
• 12:40 - Stability pathfinders, inertia markets and grid-forming inverters
• 17:04 - The winter challenge: gigawatts vs terawatt-hours
• 21:33 - Connections reform: from 800GW to a deliverable grid
• 23:54 - What connections reform means for developers next
• 26:01 - The skilled-labour bottleneck behind grid build-out
• 30:32 - Battery queue attrition and the BESS oversupply problem
• 33:51 - The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP)
• 38:59 - Co-location and bay sharing: the unfinished reform
• 44:35 - Reformed National Pricing and GB electricity market reform
• 49:13 - Data, digital and AI in the NESO control room
• 51:44 - The 2026 Operability Strategy Report and Markets Roadmap
• 52:24 - A contrarian case for connections reform

Music licensed via Artlist.