POWER UNDER PRESSURE

Power takes pole position

There was a time when Britain’s peak demand for electricity came at half-time on cup final day, as millions of kettles were simultaneously switched on.

Now, soaring demand from across the built environment and the transport sector means both the UK’s electricity generation capacity, not to mention the 90-year-old grid which transports current to where it’s needed, is under constant pressure.

Between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, domestic electricity consumption rose by 2 percent as more properties switched from gas boilers to heat pumps. Meanwhile the amount of electricity used for transport spiked by 28 percent as Electric Vehicles (EV) uptake surged.

While industrial sector consumption fell over the same period, National Grid estimates that the UK’s overall electricity use will jump by 50 percent in just 10 years, and double by 2050.

Much of the additional demand will come from a wave of new data centres, buildings which house the vast, servers that underpin all digital infrastructure, from the Cloud to AI.

National Grid predicts that by 2050 the UK’s data demand will use nearly as much energy as all Britain’s industrial users consume today.

In response the Government has pledged to boost the UK’s generating capacity, and in June 2025 it committed over £14bn to build Sizewell C, a nuclear power station in Suffolk able to power six million homes.

But the rapid growth in electricity demand, and the increasing competition for power, isn’t just storing up trouble for tomorrow, it’s creating tension today, in the following ways.

Connection crunch

Council leaders report that real estate development in areas including West London, Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes, Swindon and Cambridge is being hampered by insufficient energy capacity in their regional grids, forcing developers to endure long waits for their schemes to be connected.

Under the UK’s deregulated utilities framework, electricity connection applications are typically made to one of 14 regional distribution network operators (DNOs). A backlog of requests means that wait times of several years are common.

To reduce the number of speculative applications, since 2024, developers have been required to include a Letter of Authority from their site’s landowner as part of their application.

In Spring 2025 the regulator Ofgem authorised a change to the Transmission Operator decision-making criteria from ‘first come, first served’ to ‘first ready, first connected’.

Together these changes should enable the best-prepared applications to secure a connection more quickly, but they also raise both the stakes and the bar for applicants.

The ‘energy first’ business case

The difficulty of getting a connection has pushed electricity to the forefront of business case discussions for many commercial and residential real estate programmes too.

The UK has some of the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, which makes it hard for Britain to compete with its European rivals in attracting global manufacturing investment.

The Government’s new Industrial Strategy, announced in June 2025, is set to reduce electricity unit costs for the most energy-intensive manufacturers from 2027.

But for now, the combination of the high cost of energy, wide regional variations in connection availability and long wait times means that electricity is often a major consideration in project viability, on a par with planning and funding.

Successfully navigating the uncertainties of the connection queue, with the accompanying impact they have on project cost and schedule, is critical.

Ask the expert

"Significant work is being done to boost the UK’s generation capacity and improve its transmission network, but the availability of power connections can still vary greatly by region.

The availability map is dynamic too, it's seldom as simple as ‘build here and you’ll get a connection quickly’.

To maximise your chances of success, seek expert advice and work through the following connection checklist."

Chris Trew Director, Turner & Townsend alinea

6 tips for connection success

1. Start strong

Whatever sector you’re building for, applying for a power connection must be an early action for both the due diligence process and the project team. Before submitting a connection application, ensure it is fully completed, as specific as possible and, if the applicant is not the landowner, includes a Letter of Authority.

2. Brown beats green

Adding additional power connectivity to an existing commercial or industrial site may be easier than laying cables from scratch, so choosing a brownfield rather than greenfield site could shorten the wait time.

3. DNO vs ICP

While the connection and supply will ultimately be provided by the DNO, developers can commission an Independent Connection Provider (ICP) to undertake connection works. ICP’s may offer a lower cost or greater speed, but they are only permitted to do the ‘contestable’ portion of the works. By contrast DNOs offer a complete, turnkey solution. Assessing the merits of each is complex and will depend on project need, so seek expert guidance.

4. Monitor, manage and maintain dialogue

Actively monitor the status of your application and respond promptly if you are asked to supply additional information. In addition, maintain dialogue with the DNO handling your application. While the process is standardised, staying visible and engaged will expedite the intermediate steps.

5. Ramp it up

Consider requesting a 'ramped' connection. This may bring forward your initial connection date and brings commercial benefits too, as you will only pay for capacity in phased increments. However, the staggered timeline will need factoring into both the construction and operational schedule of the asset.

6. Flex for success

Where the project includes its own electricity generation capability, for example through solar panels, the DNO may be able to offer a flexible connection that allows surplus energy to be exported to the grid under a process managed by Distributed Energy Resources Management System (DERMS) software. Flexible connections can offer a cost effective and quicker way of connecting a built asset to the power network but require careful management in operation.

No higher power

The growing competition for electricity between real estate developers, traditional heavy industry and the UK’s data demand is impacting built asset programmes.

It also poses a challenge for the Government, which has declared data centres to be ‘critical infrastructure’, pledged to reduce electricity bills for over 7000 energy-intensive manufacturers and to get 1.5m new homes built in England.

National Grid is improving the distribution network through 17 separate projects known as the Great Grid Upgrade, and additional generating capacity is coming from ‘new nuclear’, albeit slowly.

Britain’s next nuclear plant, the 3.2GW Hinkley Point C, won’t come online until the end of the decade, and Sizewell C is currently slated for completion in the mid-2030s.

Against that backdrop of rising tension and competing energy needs, capital programme teams must treat the availability of a suitable power connection as central to both project viability and site selection. Engaging with experienced power connection experts should be a priority as early as business case stage.