The battery queue and CMP470’s commitment fee
CMP470 would bring in a commitment fee for batteries: a minimum, from £3,000 to £25,000 per MW, on the security a battery puts up and on the cancellation charge it pays if it leaves the queue. It would apply from when a battery accepts its Gate 2 offer until it connects, starting in October 2027. Ofgem is minded to approve it. The commitment fee would switch on while battery capacity built or with a Gate 2 offer is more than 50% above a target, and off once it’s less than 25% above. NESO could choose not to switch it on or raise it, but would have to tell Ofgem, which could direct otherwise. This page shows how far above the target NESO puts the battery queue, and checks that figure against NESO’s TEC register and the DNOs’ registers. The figures on this page update with each new register.
Who this page helps, and how
Battery developers and owners. See how close the queue is to the switch-off line, and what the commitment fee would do to a battery like yours in our analysis of the commitment fee.
Investors and lenders. While the commitment fee is on, every battery with an accepted Gate 2 offer, unless exempt, would have to keep its security at or above the minimum until it connects, and would pay at least the minimum as its cancellation charge if it left the queue. Allow for it in valuations and loan terms.
Ofgem and NESO. NESO’s figure rests on Gate 2 offers it expects to issue. Use the registers’ range as a public cross-check.
1. How far above the target does NESO put the battery queue?
NESO’s final modification report puts the batteries operating or with a Gate 2 offer at 88.6 GW, 208.8% above the target of 28.7 GW for 2035. The commitment fee would switch on while that capacity is more than 50% above the target, and switch off once it’s less than 25% above, so 52.8 GW would have to leave the queue to switch it off, as our analysis of the commitment fee shows.
The battery queue against CMP470’s thresholds
Batteries built or due to connect by the end of 2035, in GW, against the target and the lines that would switch the commitment fee on and off.
How we measured it
CMP470’s measure, in NESO’s final modification report (14 July 2026), Parameter 1, pages 11 and 12: “Ahead of each bi-annual securities statement, NESO will compare the total (MW) capacity of each technology with the prevailing long-term (MW) capacity target (for that technology) at the time to calculate a percentage oversubscription. The total (MW) capacity would be based on the sum of: (i) operational assets, (ii) signed Gate 2 Connection Agreements for Transmission connected projects, (iii) signed Gate 2 Connection Offers for distribution connected projects and (iv) the (MW) volume of projects which applied for a Gate 2 Offer in a recent Gated Application Window that NESO has confirmed will receive a Gate 2 Offer but have not yet received that Offer or it is not yet due for signature.” The commitment fee would switch on when the total is more than the target multiplied by 1.5, and off once it’s less than the target multiplied by 1.25. NESO could choose not to switch it on or raise it, but would have to tell Ofgem, which could direct otherwise; switching it off would be automatic. NESO’s figure is from the report’s table on page 7: for batteries, 88,639 under “Built + Phase 1 + Phase 2 (GW)”, against 28,700 under “Cumulative Target for 2035 (Phase 2, GW)”, and 208.8% under “Oversubscription in Phase 2 (%)”. The headings say GW, but the figures are in MW. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are the connections due in 2026 to 2030 and in 2031 to 2035. The report says most Gate 2 offers had not yet been issued or signed, so its figure counts the Gate 2 offers NESO expects to issue. Ofgem published its minded-to position to approve CMP470 for consultation on 17 September 2026, and expects to decide later in 2026. Its consultation sets out, on page 15, the commitment fee’s levels, when it would switch on and off, and that it would be returned once a battery connects. Page 18 gives the minimum on both the cancellation charge and the security, when it would apply, what a project that leaves the queue would lose, and the exemption: a battery added to a site with another technology, if it adds no TEC and less than £250,000 of works and connection costs. Page 19 gives NESO’s choice not to switch it on or raise it, and, on Ofgem’s current plans, its start: NESO’s July 2027 securities statement, with the security due from October 2027. When Ofgem expects to decide is from its press release of the same day.
2. Do the registers agree with NESO’s figure?
NESO’s figure counts Gate 2 offers it expects to issue, so nobody outside NESO can check it project by project. NESO’s TEC register and the DNOs’ registers list the batteries that hold an agreement today, so we count those instead, each battery once, as a public check on NESO’s figure.
Batteries built, or due to connect by the end of 2035 with a Gate 2 offer so far, come to 25.55 GW. That is a floor: it leaves out Gate 2 offers not yet issued, and Gate 2 offers at distribution in England and Wales, which the registers don’t mark. Adding the batteries whose gate is not stated gives 105.8 GW, 268.6% above the target, so 69.9 GW would have to leave to switch the commitment fee off. NESO’s 88.6 GW sits between the two, much nearer the top.
What makes up the two totals
Each battery counted once, in GW. Press a DNO part of a bar to list its biggest sites.
| Batteries built, plus due by 2035 with… | TEC register | DNOs’ registers | Total | Against the target | To leave to switch the commitment fee off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Gate 2 offer so far | 19.25 | 6.30 | 25.55 | 11.0% below the target | 0.00 |
| A Gate 2 offer or gate not stated | 57.5 | 48.3 | 105.8 | 268.6% above the target | 69.9 |
| Any gate (the whole queue) | 140.5 | 49.6 | 190.1 | 562.3% above the target | 154.2 |
| NESO’s figure | 88.6 | 208.8% above the target | 52.8 |
What it means: NESO’s figure, and the registers’ total with the batteries whose gate is not stated, are both far above the line that would switch the commitment fee off.
How we measured it
We count as a battery a storage project with NESO’s Energy Storage System among its plant types, unless its name points to another storage technology, such as liquid air, without also saying battery or BESS. Two liquid-air projects whose names say battery, Cryogenic Battery System (Synchronous) and Highview Hunterston East Cryobattery, are left out too. In the TEC register, hybrids, storage with solar or wind, are left out: the register gives a hybrid’s MW for the whole project, not its battery’s. At their whole MW they would add up to 78.1 GW to the total with gate not stated. The DNOs’ registers give each energy source its own MW, so a hybrid site counts by its battery there. Each battery is counted once: a TEC battery connected at distribution is matched to its DNO site, on the customer, a word of its name, its grid supply point and its capacity, and counted from the TEC register, which gives its gate. The date we give a Gate 2 offer is the first register that marks it; the register doesn’t say when the Gate 2 offer was made, or whether it has been signed. The registers give no gate at distribution outside NESO’s Embedded Register, which covers Scotland.
In NESO’s TEC register, batteries built or due to connect by the end of 2035 come to 140.5 GW: 4.7 GW built, 14.6 GW with a Gate 2 offer, 83.0 GW marked Gate 1 and 38.2 GW whose gate is not stated. The total with a Gate 2 offer so far counts 19.25 GW of them, built and Gate 2, and the total with gate not stated 57.5 GW, those whose gate is not stated too.
In the DNOs’ registers, 4.8 GW of batteries is connected and 44.8 GW accepted to connect by the end of 2035 or with no target date: 25.8 GW with a target date and 19.0 GW with none, most of it Northern Powergrid’s. Leaving out 1.3 GW that NESO’s Embedded Register marks Gate 1, the total with gate not stated counts 48.3 GW. The total with a Gate 2 offer so far counts what is connected and the 1.5 GW the Embedded Register marks Gate 2, 6.30 GW.
3. How has the TEC register’s battery queue grown since 2021?
The TEC register’s batteries built or due to connect by the end of 2035 have grown from 3.9 GW in January 2021 to 140.5 GW on 3 November 2026. Since NESO’s Gate 2 to Whole Queue results on 9 December 2025, those built, with a Gate 2 offer or with their gate not stated have fallen from 130.9 GW to 57.5 GW, because NESO has since marked much of that capacity Gate 1.
Batteries in the TEC register since 2021
The first register of each year, the register of the Gate 2 results (9 December 2025), the register on the report’s date (14 July 2026) and the latest, in GW.
NESO’s registers from 27 June 2025 to 9 December 2025 gave Vicarage Drove BESS 1,200 MW connected, shown here as NESO published it; NESO corrected it on 12 December 2025.
| Register | Built | Gate 2 | Gate 1 | Not stated | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 January 2021 | 248 | 0 | 0 | 3,687 | 3,935 |
| 28 January 2022 | 353 | 0 | 0 | 10,545 | 10,898 |
| 31 January 2023 | 583 | 0 | 0 | 30,464 | 31,047 |
| 30 January 2024 | 997.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 85,282.5 | 86,280.2 |
| 31 January 2025 | 1,364 | 0 | 0 | 120,064 | 121,428 |
| 9 December 2025 | 3,669.0 | 0.0 | 7,354.9 | 127,227.6 | 138,251.5 |
| 2 January 2026 | 2,469 | 0 | 13,971 | 120,611 | 137,051 |
| 14 July 2026 | 3,906 | 7,638 | 71,437 | 54,857 | 137,838 |
| 3 November 2026 | 4,672 | 14,581 | 82,993 | 38,244 | 140,490 |
How we measured it
Each bar counts the batteries in that register as it was published, hybrids left out. The registers before 21 November 2025 have no Gate column, so none of their batteries has a gate.
Will CMP470’s commitment fee clear the battery queue?
QueueQuant follows each battery in the queue through the commitment fee. Our use case finds which batteries leave, which sell to a fund and which stay.
How to cite this page
You’re welcome to quote our figures, charts and findings with this credit:
QueueWatch by QueueQuant, ‘The battery queue and CMP470’s commitment fee’, queuequant.com/queuewatch/battery-queue-cmp470/ (data to 3 November 2026). Contains data from NESO’s TEC register. Supported by National Energy SO Open Data. Contains data from the Embedded Capacity Registers of UKPN, NGED, SSEN, SPEN, Northern Powergrid and ENWL. Supported by Northern Powergrid Open Data.
Supported by National Energy SO Open Data. Registers from 29 January 2021 to 11 August 2026 are copies NESO released to QueueQuant on 19 October 2026 under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (request FOI/26/226). Later registers are QueueWatch’s own downloads from NESO’s Data Portal. Contains data from NESO’s Embedded Register. Contains data from the Embedded Capacity Registers of UKPN, NGED, SSEN, SPEN, Northern Powergrid and ENWL. Supported by Northern Powergrid Open Data.