Do projects connect on time?
Every project in NESO’s TEC register has a connection date: the date it’s due to connect. Many projects connect in stages, parts of their capacity each with its own connection date, so we look at each stage. This page compares each stage’s connection date in the register with when it connected, and counts the projects past their connection date today. For how often connection dates move while projects are still waiting, see Delays and exits. The figures on this page update with each new register.
Who this page helps, and how
Developers and investors. A project’s connection date in the register is when it’s due to connect, not when it will. See how late stages have connected after it, and build that into your programme and model.
Landowners. Check how late connections have come before you agree or extend a longstop date.
Power buyers and data centre tenants. Use the lateness by technology to set start dates you can rely on.
NESO and Ofgem. Watch the share connecting on time as the reformed queue’s connection dates come due.
1. Is the register slow to show a stage connected?
NESO’s register shows a stage connected when it records the stage’s MW connected, which can be after the stage first exports. To check, we compared the first connections of the 28 projects whose operational date we can find in DESNZ’s Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD). The register first showed them connected a median of 2 months after that date, the middle half from 4 months before it to 6 months after it. The next section gives both readings, register only and with REPD dates, and they barely differ: projects really do connect late. It isn’t the register being slow to record them.
How long after the REPD’s operational date the register first showed the stage connected
Stages that were their project’s first connection, matched to the REPD. Press a bar to list its stages.
| Months after | Stages |
|---|---|
| Register more than a month before the REPD | 9 |
| Within a month | 3 |
| 2 to 6 months after | 9 |
| 7 to 12 months after | 3 |
| 13 months or more after | 4 |
How we measured it
The REPD is DESNZ’s database of renewable and storage projects of 150 kW and over; its operational date is the date it gives a project as operational. Each stage is matched through the approved planning matches that put REPD facts on project pages, and only a project’s first connection is compared, as a record’s date is for the project. For the months up to October 2025 we hold one register a month, so for those stages the register can show a connection up to a month after it happened.
2. How late have stages connected against their connection date in the register?
Since February 2021, NESO’s TEC register has shown 109 stages connected, 18.6 GW at 105 projects, each connected as the register first shows it. Most of those we can compare connected later than their connection date in the register.
Of the 81 stages with a connection date in the register a year before they connected, as the register first shows it, 75 connected more than a month after it, by a median of 15 months, and a quarter of those by 25 months or more. 3 connected on time and 3 early. Against their connection date three years before, 44 of 45 were late, by a median of 24 months.
How late stages connected, against their connection date in the register a year before
Each stage’s own connection date in the last register at least 12 months before it connected. Press a bar to list its stages.
| Against their connection date | Stages | On time | Late | Early | Median months late (quartiles) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months before | 81 | 3 | 75 | 3 | 15 (12 to 25) |
| 24 months before | 67 | 1 | 64 | 2 | 21 (15 to 26) |
| 36 months before | 45 | 1 | 44 | 0 | 24 (18 to 27) |
| in their first register | 103 | 4 | 94 | 5 | 22 (11 to 33) |
| in the register just before | 97 | 7 | 87 | 3 | 10 (6 to 21) |
| Technology | Stages | On time | Late | Early | Median months late |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 42 | 1 | 40 | 1 | 17 |
| Solar | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 19 |
| Onshore wind | 17 | 2 | 15 | 0 | 12 |
| Offshore wind | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 27 |
| Thermal | 6 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 21 |
| Hybrid | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 14 |
| Other | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Year | Stages | On time | Share on time | Late | Early | Median months late |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6 | 2 | 33.3% | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 2023 | 12 | 0 | 0.0% | 12 | 0 | 14 |
| 2024 | 9 | 0 | 0.0% | 9 | 0 | 14 |
| 2025 | 36 | 0 | 0.0% | 33 | 3 | 21 |
| 2026 so far | 18 | 1 | 5.6% | 17 | 0 | 15 |
What it means: Plan for a connection later than its connection date in the register.
How we measured it
A stage’s connection date in the register is its own row’s connection date (MW Effective From) in the last register at least 12, 24 or 36 months before it connected, in the first register that gave the row a connection date, and in the register just before it connected. On time is within a month either way, in whole months; late and early are beyond that. A stage that connected in steps counts once, at its first; a stage whose row wasn’t in the register at a point has no figure there, which is why fewer stages have a connection date further back.
The With REPD dates reading covers 3 fewer stages. By the REPD’s dates, Hawkers Hill Energy Park, Broadditch BESS and Chapel Farm Battery Storage Project connected within a year of first appearing in the register, so there’s no register from a year earlier to compare them with.
3. How many projects are past their connection date today?
On 3 November 2026, 101 projects had stages past their connection date, 16.9 GW of the 606.3 GW still to connect. 23 of them have been past it for two years or more.
Stages past their connection date
Each project by how long its oldest stage still to connect has been past its connection date, in GW. Press a bar to list its projects.
| Technology | Projects | MW past its connection date | MW still to connect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 48 | 4,685.95 | 5,141.05 |
| Solar | 1 | 129.80 | 129.80 |
| Onshore wind | 17 | 1,286.89 | 1,443.99 |
| Offshore wind | 5 | 5,850.00 | 6,600.00 |
| Thermal | 9 | 4,020.00 | 4,531.00 |
| Hybrid | 21 | 963.19 | 1,033.60 |
| All technologies | 101 | 16,935.83 | 18,879.44 |
How we measured it
A stage is past its connection date where it still has MW to connect and its own connection date is before the latest register. The register leaves a connection date that has passed standing until the stage connects or NESO gives it a new one.
What if your connection date is pushed back?
QueueQuant values your project across thousands of possible futures for its connection date and the market, and tells you whether to hold, cut MW, sell or walk away, and what would change that answer.
How to cite this page
You’re welcome to quote our figures, charts and findings with this credit:
QueueWatch by QueueQuant, ‘Do projects connect on time?’, queuequant.com/queuewatch/connecting-on-time/ (data to 3 November 2026). Contains data from NESO’s TEC register. Supported by National Energy SO Open Data. Contains data from DESNZ’s Renewable Energy Planning Database. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 DESNZ’s Renewable Energy Planning Database. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.