We've launched a new way of accelerating connections – to help our connecting customers get the electricity they're asking for.

Following a successful period in West London, our ramping trial is being expanded to the rest of our central southern England licence area. This could enable customers to connect (or increase their existing capacity) by between 1 – 5MVA per year, up to a maximum of 15MVA.

By enabling ramped capacity connections in our central southern England licence area, customers may be able to progressively increase their electricity demand over time. This would avoid the need for them to undertake a Transmission Entry Assessment.

In addition, projects already in the connections queue with current mid-2030s connection dates because of Transmission-level constraints can also opt for a ramped profile. This route will avoid them being subject to Transmission reinforcement, which is what typically drives longer connections timescales.

To qualify for a ramped connection, a customer must meet the following criteria:

  • Available for new load connections or load increases between 1MVA and 15MVA.

  • Customers must provide a build-out schedule and meet agreed milestones.

  • The maximum available ramping rate is 5MVA per year, but the actual rate and timing will be determined by our System Planning team as part of the application assessment.

  • There must be sufficient headroom in our forecast load-growth submissions to National Grid Electricity Transmission for the relevant Grid Supply Point to incorporate your scheme.

  • This potential offer is only applicable within our central southern England (SEPD) licence area.

If you wish to apply for a ramped connection, please indicate this in your application form and include your proposed ramping profile.

Once we’ve received your application, you’ll get a call from our connections designer to discuss the application, review the ramping approach and discuss if it's likely to accelerate connections timescales.

If you’re an existing customer in the queue, and your project is dependent on Transmission works and you wish to move to a ramped connection, please email connections@ssen.co.uk, providing your existing project reference number and capacity profile.