The Connectology® Podcast by Roadnight Taylor

Pete Aston is joined by Nikki Pillinger and Alex Ikonic for a fast-moving look at Demand Reform and several Code Modifications in progress.  HV asset ownership: strong industry support for new ownership routes - either a class exemption or an Independent Transmission Owner (ITO) license. NGET is now consulting demand customers on whether they'd want to own High Voltage (HV) assets, potentially as...

Developers and investors have spent the past year navigating Gate 2 applications, hoping for offers that would clearly de-risk their projects. In this episode, Connectologist® Pete Aston is joined by Connectologists® Nikki Pillinger and Rachael Eynon to unpack what is actually showing up in those offers and the queue changes ahead.  Offer progress: transmission and distribution protected offers ha...

Connectologists® Pete Aston, Philip Bale, and Alex Ikonic return for another GNV session, covering the developments shaping the connections landscape right now. The episode explores: Gate 2 offer progress is moving steadily, with 100% of protected transmission offers issued and distribution at 39%, though Phase 1 offers (to 2030) arriving mid-May to September are expected to bring more complex ter...

Rachael Eynon is joined by Adam Sroka, CEO of Hypercube, a specialist data and AI consultancy focused on the energy sector, to explore how energy organisations can navigate AI adoption safely and practically. Adam explores: How the energy sector is roughly a decade behind leading tech industries in AI adoption — caution that exists for good reason given the complexity of multi-stakeholder energy s...

Kyle Murchie, Nikki Pillinger, and Rachael Eynon return for Part 2 of GNV18, covering Ofgem's end-to-end review progress and the rapidly evolving demand connections landscape.  Ofgem's end-to-end review: working groups are already delivering, with DNOs and NESO committed to publishing registers of accepted demand connections from one megawatt and above  Guaranteed connection dates: Nikki notes DNO...

In Part 1 of Grid News and Views 18, Connectologists® Kyle Murchie, Nikki Pillinger, and Rachael Eynon cover the latest Gate 2 offer progress, the methodology consultation's most pressing areas, and emerging repowering challenges.   Gate 2 transmission offers: Progress on protected offers had reached 80% issued as of late last week, though whether that figure covers transmission and distribution r...

Pete Aston is joined by John Twomey, Director of Customer and Network Development at National Grid Electricity Transmission, to explore where Connection Reform stands and what developers can expect as the engineering phase gets underway.  Connection Reform has entered execution mode - system studies are now underway, with transparency, customer-centricity, and contract quality as the three priorit...

Connectologist® Pete Aston is joined by colleagues Alex Ikonic and Catherine Cleary to discuss Ofgem's Call for Input on demand connections reform — focusing on the legal ambiguity preventing demand customers from owning high-voltage transmission assets.  Key discussion points:  The disparity: generators can own 400 kV assets; demand customers in England and Wales cannot — restricting engineering...

Connectologists® Catherine Cleary and Kyle Murchie are joined by Rachael Eynon in her first episode as a Connectologist®, covering the key grid connection developments of February 2026.  The headline topic is Ofgem's call for input on Demand Reform, closing 13 March. The combined transmission and distribution demand queue reached around 42GW in summer 2024 before rising to roughly 125GW, prompting...

Connectologists® Nikki Pillinger, Alex Ikonic, and Philip Bale examine the latest Connections Reform delays and the practical challenges developers face navigating milestones, technical limits uncertainty, and escalating project delivery costs. Since recording, NESO published further revised timelines: Protected 2026/27 transmission offers now expected between 13 February and mid-April 2026, prote...

Connectologists® Kyle Murchie, Nikki Pillinger, and Philip Bale explore two modifications addressing network boundary charges—a barrier that has stifled countless projects. With both at consultation stage, developers and demand customers can shape how costs are allocated. DCP461 has five options remaining after removing voltage-based rules. Approaches range from socialising costs through DUoS (Opt...

Connectologists® Pete Aston, Kyle Murchie, and Alex Ikonic explore the mounting pressures developers face as Gate 2 offers arrive. Transmission offers have three months to accept but queries must be submitted within four weeks. Distribution offers are expected to have about four weeks, though this may vary between DNOs. Securities are due approximately 30 days after acceptance. The key challenges...

Welcome back to Part 2, where Connectologists® Catherine Cleary and Kyle Murchie continue their conversation with Graham Pannell from BayWa r.e, examining GB's constraint management crisis. Graham explains how GB currently relies almost entirely on the Balancing Mechanism for constraints—leaving nothing to long-term planning or day-ahead signals. Using a golf analogy, he argues effective market de...

In the final episode of The Demand Connection Conundrum series, Connectologist® Pete Aston and colleague Philip Bale speak with David Wildash, Chief Strategy Officer at Apatura, exploring how strategic demand placement in Scotland could unlock a £45 billion market opportunity while reducing curtailment costs for all consumers. The core opportunity: Apatura is developing 2.3GW of data centre demand...

In this episode, Part 3 of a 4-part series, Connectologist® Pete Aston and colleague Alex Ikonic speak with Spencer Thompson, CEO of Eclipse Power Limited, exploring innovative solutions to transmission-level demand connection challenges. The core challenge: Data centres need three to four-year connection timelines but, unlike renewables, they're competing directly with Europe for investment—makin...

In this episode, Part 2 of a 4-part series on The Demand Connection Conundrum, Connectologist® Pete Aston and colleague Kyle Murchie speak with Ryan Adams, Managing Director at Innova, exploring the regulatory barriers preventing hyperscale demand projects—particularly data centres—from connecting efficiently to the transmission network. The fundamental problem: Demand customers cannot own transmi...

In this episode, Part 1 of The Demand Connection Conundrum series, Connectologist® Pete Aston synthesizes what's to come in Parts 2, 3, and 4—conversations with Ryan Adams (Innova), Spencer Thompson (Eclipse), and David Wildash (Apatura)—exploring critical barriers facing hyperscale demand projects, particularly data centres, attempting to connect to the transmission network. The core challenge: D...

In this episode of the Connectology® podcast, Connectologist® Catherine Cleary speaks with Ed Porter from Modo Energy about where battery storage stands today and what's ahead for developers and investors. Key topics: Market maturation – Batteries have moved beyond saturated frequency response into wholesale trading, attracting utilities and institutional investors with serious capital. Subsidy re...

Ofgem's Connections End-to-End Review: Standards, Accountability, and the Path Forward  Connectologist® Kyle Murchie speaks with Alasdair MacMillan from Ofgem about the connections end-to-end review, examining the entire customer journey from feasibility through energisation and beyond.  Ofgem's review (published December 2025) addresses increased standards of service and timely connection deliver...

NESO's unveiling of the new queue last Monday came with the surprising announcement that very few projects have been considered for advancement, with several DNOs announcing on the same day that all advancement requests for embedded projects in their networks had been rejected. In this Connectology® episode, Connectologists®  Pete Aston ,  Alex Ikonic ,  Nikki Pillinger , and  Catherine Cleary  ex...

Do grid connection challenges persist because critical voices are being kept at arm’s length? Connectologists®  Catherine Cleary  and  Kyle Murchie  sit down with Graham Pannell,  BayWa r.e ‘s Head of Grid and Electricity Regulation, to explore why formal industry forums delivered transformational policy improvements—and why we urgently need them reinstated. Graham brings 15-20 years of sharp-end...

Connectologists® Kyle, Catherine, and Philip are joined by Alex in her first Grid News & Views as a Connectologist®, covering Connections Reform developments, code modifications, and emerging challenges as Gate 2 offers approach. Ofgem has confirmed a backstop-only role in disputes, meaning developers must now work through all NESO processes and arbitration before escalation—making a clear und...

Connectologists® Pete Aston and Kyle Murchie are back with the latest Grid News and Views! After a four-month break, they dive into the big changes shaping Britain's grid connections — from NESO's new Gate 2 timeline to long-awaited reforms in network charging. They break down what the new Gate 2 process really means for developers: complex timelines, delayed offers, and growing uncertainty around...

In this episode of the Connectology podcast, Connectologist® Pete Aston sits down with Alan Pritchard from FarrPoint to explore the booming world of data centres – the hidden infrastructure powering everything from cloud services to artificial intelligence. Alan explains what data centres are, why they've suddenly become headline news, and how they've grown from anonymous grey boxes to critical na...

In this episode of the Connectology® podcast, we sit down with Mikey Clark, CEO of Relode Energy, to explore how the UK’s energy infrastructure must evolve to meet rising demand—from transport to ports to AI. We unpack the idea of power parks and the practical steps needed to electrify hard-to-reach sectors. Key Conversation Points: Mikey’s journey from infrastructure projects to energy innovation...