Grounded: Q2 2026

By March, Britain’s power sector was already contending with connection queues, constrained equipment supply, flexibility reform, building standards, and uneven contractor competence; during Q2, those pressures persisted, although several long-running programmes moved into more concrete stages of delivery. Revised connection offers began reaching hundreds of projects, Ofgem identified a provisional long-duration storage portfolio, BS 7671 Amendment 4 entered its transition period, and European energy-security policy absorbed another fossil-fuel price shock.

After several years spent redesigning a first-come-first-served connections process that had accumulated far more generation and storage than the system could use, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and network companies had issued offers to 713 of the 1,223 projects in the pre-2030 pipeline by 10 June. The 37GW represented by those projects covers wind, solar, hydro, and storage, with offers setting out connection locations, dates, and enabling works under a framework that now prioritises readiness and strategic need.

Reordering the queue removed neither the network work nor the cost beneath it. NESO’s June update to the 2024 Beyond 2030 plan recommended 43 transmission projects for delivery during the 2030s and put the associated investment requirement at almost £89 billion. The revised transmission programme favours upgrades to existing onshore routes where practical and proposes around three times more new offshore cabling than new onshore cabling, while electricity demand is expected to rise by more than 30% by the mid-2030s.

Although connection offers improve project certainty, they sit at the beginning of a lengthy engineering sequence rather than at its end. Substations, transformers, switchgear, protection systems, cables, civil works, outages, testing, and commissioning still determine whether a project exports on schedule, as illustrated by the 33kV and 132kV work required to connect three Elgin solar farms. Equipment lead times and workforce capacity, already prominent in the first quarter, remained embedded in the delivery risk.

As connections reform moved into implementation, storage policy progressed from established design work into project selection. Ofgem had developed the long-duration electricity storage cap-and-floor regime through 2024, opened the first application window in April 2025, and assessed 73 projects after eligibility decisions and withdrawals. Its June 2026 minded-to decision provisionally selected 16 projects totalling 7,645MW across pumped-storage hydro, compressed-air storage, lithium-ion batteries, and vanadium redox-flow batteries, each capable of discharging for at least eight hours.

While shorter-duration batteries already provide frequency response, balancing, and intraday trading, the regime extends support to assets designed for longer discharge. A revenue floor can underpin debt and equity for high-capital assets whose value emerges across infrequent but prolonged system events, while the cap limits returns where market revenues exceed the agreed threshold. Commercial projects were advancing alongside the policy process: Coalburn reached financial close as a four-hour transmission-connected battery, while the MESH compressed-air project advanced its engineering and commercial work.

As storage and bidirectional equipment spread through buildings and industrial installations, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and BSI published BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 on 15 April. Its new battery chapter builds on existing generation and protection rules, covering conversion equipment, hybrid and bidirectional inverters, protective devices, location, ventilation, and fire-risk mitigation. The preceding edition remains valid until 15 October 2026, leaving a six-month transition for specifications, inspection, testing, documentation, and training, with the principal technical changes already affecting project preparation.

While Britain refined its delivery rules, European policy returned to a familiar vulnerability under different geopolitical conditions. The European Commission launched AccelerateEU in April after disruption in Middle Eastern fossil-fuel markets, extending the direction established by REPowerEU in 2022. By the end of June, the Commission estimated that the EU had spent an additional €50 billion on fossil fuels since March. Ofgem’s May decision raised Britain’s July price cap by 13%, with electricity unit costs expected to increase by around 5%, compared with 24% for gas.

As policy focused more closely on resilience, global generation data continued an established shift rather than marking a sudden break. Ember calculated that renewables supplied 33.8% of global electricity in 2025, slightly ahead of coal at 33.0%, whereas the International Energy Agency described the two as virtually level under its methodology; both recorded strong solar growth, with the IEA putting the annual increase at about 600TWh. The Commission also restricted EU funding for projects involving inverters from high-risk suppliers, bringing remote access, firmware, operational data, and fleet-level control more firmly into procurement decisions.

Across Q2, generation capacity continued to expand, while the infrastructure surrounding it received more exacting rules, clearer investment routes, and a larger bill. Connections reform, storage support, installation standards, fuel security, and inverter controls all developed from work already under way; their convergence showed how thoroughly electricity-system delivery now depends on networks, flexibility, secure digital control, and skilled execution.

What were Q2 2026’s biggest electrical engineering stories?

Britain reordered connections and expanded its transmission plan

NESO and Britain’s network companies had issued offers to 713 of the 1,223 projects in the pre-2030 connections pipeline by 10 June, covering 37GW of wind, solar, hydro, and storage. The milestone followed several years of reform intended to replace first-come-first-served allocation with readiness and strategic-need tests. Later that month, NESO updated the Beyond 2030 plan first published in March 2024, recommending 43 transmission projects and estimating investment of almost £89 billion. The offers improve certainty over connection dates, locations, and enabling works, but they remain conditional on equipment procurement, consenting, network reinforcement, construction, and commissioning. NESO estimates that balancing costs could roughly triple between 2031 and 2035 without the proposed reinforcement.

Ofgem selected a provisional 7.6GW long-duration storage portfolio

Ofgem provisionally selected 16 projects totalling 7,645MW for the first window of Britain’s long-duration electricity storage cap-and-floor regime. The portfolio includes pumped-storage hydro, compressed-air storage, lithium-ion batteries, and vanadium redox-flow batteries, with every project required to discharge for at least eight hours. Policy development began in 2024 and the application window opened in April 2025; the June decision narrowed an eligible field that had initially contained 77 projects. A regulated revenue floor is designed to support financing when merchant income falls short, while the cap returns excess revenue above an agreed level. Consultation closes on 7 August, with final awards expected in autumn 2026, so the selected capacity remains subject to Ofgem’s final determination and project-delivery conditions.

Another fossil-fuel shock tested Europe’s energy-security programme

The European Commission launched AccelerateEU in April after disruption in Middle Eastern fuel markets increased import costs, extending rather than replacing the REPowerEU programme adopted after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The package combines immediate consumer measures with faster electrification, renewable deployment, efficiency, and grid investment. By the end of June, the Commission estimated that the EU had spent an additional €50 billion on fossil fuels since March, while imported fossil fuels still accounted for 57% of EU energy consumption. Ofgem’s May decision to raise Britain’s July household price cap by 13% reflected the same wholesale gas pressure. Electricity unit costs rose considerably less than gas, although gas-fired generation and marginal pricing continued to transmit part of the shock into power markets.

BS 7671 Amendment 4 formalised battery and bidirectional design

The IET and BSI published BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 on 15 April, introducing a chapter on stationary secondary batteries and revising requirements for Power over Ethernet, functional earthing, and medical locations. The amendment responds to technologies already entering domestic, commercial, healthcare, and industrial installations rather than creating a new class of work. Its battery provisions cover system design, power-conversion equipment, hybrid and bidirectional inverters, protection suitable for two-way energy flow, location, ventilation, and fire-risk mitigation. The previous edition remains valid until 15 October 2026, allowing a six-month transition. Designs, specifications, test schedules, inspection procedures, and competence records will need to identify which edition governs work spanning the changeover.

Renewable generation edged past coal as inverter controls tightened

Ember calculated that renewables generated 33.8% of global electricity in 2025, ahead of coal at 33.0%, while the IEA described renewable and coal generation as virtually level because its data and methodology differ. Both assessments continue a long expansion in wind and solar, with solar output increasing by about 600TWh during 2025. In June, the European Commission also confirmed that EU funds had been restricted for projects using inverters from high-risk suppliers and set out further assessment of solar-installation cybersecurity. Connected inverters already manage firmware, operational data, voltage behaviour, and fault response; procurement controls are now addressing supplier access and remote-control risk alongside electrical performance, warranty, and grid-code compliance.