Plans to raise the threshold for costly and time-consuming transmission impact assessments (TIA) from 1MW to 5MW were welcomed last week as a major boon to the large-scale rooftop solar market.
Solar Energy UK said these changes, proposed by the National Energy System Operator (NESO), would remove burdensome red tape and greatly accelerate deployment of solar PV on warehouses in particular.
It would mean new grid management rules, known as ‘Gate 2’ compliance, would not apply to projects under 5MW, nor would they have to demonstrate consistency with December’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. In all, up to 390 projects are expected to be brought forward under the plan.
TIA changes won’t apply in Scotland
However, it’s been revealed that due to technicalities relating to how the Scottish electricity grid is set up, the threshold change will not apply in Scotland. A threshold of only 200 kilowatts will continue.
Northern Ireland operates under different rules, as part of the all-Ireland grid.
According to Solar Energy UK, this would leave Scotland in a position 25 times worse off.
Josh King, Chair of Solar Energy Scotland, said: “While it’s certainly welcome south of the border, this move will put Scottish businesses at a disadvantage, not to mention the Scottish economy, energy security and decarbonisation efforts. We need to cut these overly cautious bureaucratic rules in Scotland in the same way as England and Wales to maintain a level playing field.”
Solar Energy Scotland has therefore appealed to NESO, network operators Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks, and to politicians in Holyrood and Westminster, to replicate the change north of the border.
In a letter to the above, it describes the matter as “a critical issue for Scotland’s renewable energy sector: if TIA thresholds in Scotland are not similarly increased, there is serious risk of further exacerbating an already uneven playing field that could deter investment in Scottish renewables.”
It goes on to warn that developers may choose to focus on projects in England and Wales, due to the lower costs that would apply there.
“This will undermine Scotland’s solar energy industry and jeopardise Scotland’s own climate and energy targets, such as the 4-6GW solar deployment ambition by 2030. This could also hamstring the UK’s overall Clean Power and Net Zero targets, as large amounts of renewable generation are needed at both the Distribution and Transmission level in Scotland to achieve the targets,” the letter adds.
Image credit: iStock