Great British Grid to target bottlenecks holding back power projects

29 September 2026

A new publicly owned body has been created to help speed up electricity grid connections and bring more investment into the UK’s ageing network.

Great British Grid (GBG), announced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will sit within Great British Energy and invest public money in electricity network infrastructure.

The government says the body will help tackle delays that are preventing new generation from connecting to the grid as electricity demand from homes and businesses increases.

GBG will work with existing network operators, developers and private investors. It will also be able to compete for transmission projects as the government expands competitive tendering for new infrastructure.

Reforms will also allow more developers and businesses to build their own grid connections where appropriate, rather than waiting for network companies to carry out the work. Similar changes in Ireland have reduced connection times by up to 11 months.

The government is already working with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to reform the connections system, including an overhaul of the connections queue that will remove more than 300GW of speculative capacity. It says further investment will be needed over the coming decades to upgrade the network as demand from homes, industry and new sources of clean power increases.

Ofgem will remain responsible for regulating energy markets and network companies, while NESO will continue to operate, plan and coordinate the electricity system.

Great British Energy currently invests public capital in clean energy generation, storage and supply chains. GBG will extend its investment role into network infrastructure.

Initial start-up costs for GBG will be met from Great British Energy’s existing budgets. Its longer-term funding will be considered as part of a future spending review.