UK announces Great British Grid, a public investor in electricity networks

The UK government announced Great British Grid on September 29, 2026, a new publicly owned body within Great British Energy that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says will "bring together public and private investment" in electricity network infrastructure, alongside reforms to let developers build their own grid connections and faster competitive tendering of transmission projects. The release gives no investment figure, no start date and no legislation: the body's initial start-up costs come from Great British Energy's existing budgets, and its long-term budget "will be considered as part of a future spending review."

A GOV.UK search for the body's name on September 29, 2026 returns only this release. It carries no ministerial quote, names no chair or chief executive, and its notes to editors spend more words on what the body will not do than on what it will: Ofgem "remains the independent economic regulator," NESO "remains responsible for operating, planning and coordinating the electricity system," and "the role of existing network operators remains unchanged."

What the release says, and leaves out

Three things, in DESNZ's words. First, Great British Grid "will invest public capital, alongside private investment, in electricity network infrastructure projects across the country," working alongside private investors, developers and network operators, with a purpose "to bring additional public investment, increase competition and accelerate delivery of critical infrastructure where Britain needs it most." Second, the government "will also bring forward reforms to expand self-build connections," letting developers and businesses build their own connections "where appropriate, rather than waiting for network companies to do so"; the release says similar reforms in Ireland cut connection times "by up to 11 months," without citing an Irish source. Third, the government will also accelerate the competitive tendering of transmission projects, "allowing a wider range of organisations, including Great British Grid, to compete to deliver new network infrastructure."

The release frames the body as a sibling of its parent, which it says is investing in supply chain, generation and storage projects across the country: "now Great British Grid will be able to invest in our electricity grid." The release says the two together "will be able to invest across the energy system."

One sentence in the notes reads like a reassurance to licence holders: "We do not expect Great British's Grid's role to impact existing project commitments under the in-force and in-negotiation Ofgem licences," the possessive stray apostrophe included. The release does not say which projects the new body would take first, whether it would hold network licences itself, or how its returns would be set.

The queue it inherits

The release says the government is already working with NESO and Ofgem on the connections system, "including overhauling the connections queue and removing more than 300 GW of speculative capacity." An earlier count is lower. An open letter from DESNZ and Ofgem dated April 16, 2026 says 221 GW of projects that had applied for firm connection agreements "but were not needed for 2035, or were no longer progressing, have been moved out of the main queue," and that "many projects self-selected into Gate 1, meaning the total capacity filtered out is even higher." The later figure is higher: 221 GW in the letter's main-queue count as of April 16, 2026, with the total filtered out "even higher" on that date, and more than 300 GW in the release of September 29, 2026.

NESO's connections reform results page, read on September 29, 2026, describes the old queue as having "grown to over 700GW, four times what's needed by 2030," with "shovel-ready projects waiting for up to 10 years," and says "This open, transparent process secured broad support from all groups and Ofgem approval in April 2025," listing over 60 industry workgroups, 1500 applications reviewed in five months and 172 consultation responses as showing the scale of collaboration. The same April letter that gives the 221 GW figure also says the programme "has, however, faced significant delays," which it attributes to data errors in historic connection agreements and the need for NESO and network companies to rework network studies and planning; that "further slippage is not acceptable"; and that DESNZ and Ofgem "have set expectations for a firm, coordinated response," which "includes regular public reporting against the revised timetable so industry can track progress." The letter calls connections reform a critical enabler for the clean power by 2030 ambition, which it says "is expected to bring forward £200 billion of investment in network and project build by 2030." The new body is announced into that timetable, not ahead of it.

Connection cost is the other half of queue friction, and the release's self-build reform speaks to it without a number. For comparison, on the US side The Duck Curve has covered a 125 MW Massachusetts battery whose developer moved to withdraw after ISO New England's final cluster study listed $65.3 million of upgrades for its queue position; the DESNZ release names neither the connection costs it expects self-build to lower nor a timetable for the reform.

Outlook

Three things to watch follow from the documents, none of them dated by the documents. The April letter says the response DESNZ and Ofgem have set expectations for "includes regular public reporting against the revised timetable," so a delivery update is where the queue clear-out would next be counted; the release does not say whether the new body will figure in one. The release's self-build and tendering reforms are promised without instruments or dates, so their first appearance would be a consultation or a licence-condition change on GOV.UK or at Ofgem. And the body's budget beyond start-up costs is deferred to a spending review the release does not date; until one is published, Great British Grid's investing capacity is whatever Great British Energy can spare from budgets already committed to generation, storage and supply-chain projects.