Reports that Octopus planning own grid

Reports in a national newspaper suggest Octopus Energy is planning to develop its own electricity network, which would bring to an end National Grid’s decades-long monopoly.

Chief Executive of Octopus, Greg Jackson, told The Telegraph that there was “increasing support for this idea” and “more than one way to skin a cat”.

Explaining further, Jackson said: “If we could find ways to build power infrastructure that are faster and cheaper, who wouldn’t want it?”

The newspaper said that talks had already been held with the energy regulator Ofgem regarding the plans, as the firm looks to shore up grid expansion.

The proposal is due to be consulted on soon, after Ofgem had to consider competition for onshore energy, through the fresh rules in place from the recently passed Energy Act 2003.

The news comes as National Grid has a long queue of projects which are awaiting connectivity to the network. In November last year, Ofgem announced new rules to speed up grid connections, with speculative developers – so-called “zombie projects” – forced out of the queue through a move away from the “first come, first served” approach.

The new queue management milestones will terminate stalled projects that are blocking the queue for high-voltage transmission lines and means ready-to-go generation and storage to enable net zero can be fast-tracked.

Concern has been raised about grid expansion and planning, with local communities opposed to new pylons.

But Jackson told The Telegraph that innovation to develop alternatives to pylons could overcome such concerns and ensure “less community resistance”.

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