Our five-point plan

The TEC amnesty was a process run by the ESO, in partnership with Transmissions Owners (TOs), where we invited all parties with connections agreements listed on the TEC register (e.g. generation developers) to confirm whether they would be willing to terminate their agreement at minimal or no cost, or reduce their TEC.

We have been working closely with Ofgem and the three TO’s, and understand the concerns that stakeholders have raised about the connections queue and the need to implement more effective queue management arrangements. Improving queue management will deliver value to consumers by better optimising the investments required to connect customers, as well as helping deliver Government’s decarbonisation policies.

The TEC amnesty is the first phase in this process along with the queue management CUSC work group (CMP 376) restarting. With this in mind, and ahead of queue management milestones being applied within connection agreements, we ran a TEC amnesty, from September 2022 to April 2023, to allow customers to leave the queue or reduce TEC with no or little cost.

If the code modification CMP376 is approved by Ofgem, then queue management milestones will be applied to all new applications and modification applications received after Ofgem’s decision. The TEC amnesty was an opportunity for customers to leave the queue before these milestones apply.

The TEC amnesty is now closed and 8.2GW of projects applied to terminated contract.

On 22 September 2022 the ESO (in partnership with the TO’s and Ofgem) launched the first TEC (Transmission Entry Capacity) amnesty since 2013, giving customers the opportunity to terminate or reduce TEC with a reduced or no cost.

Following industry feedback, we extended the expression of interest window, from 30 November 2022 to the end of April 2023, to enable  further progress in the activities listed below as well as help drive our ambition to meet net zero:

• Completion of HND1 contract update
• Further progress on the Construction and Planning Assumptions optimisation exercise
• Completion of interconnector Cap and Floor review
• CMP376: Introduction of Queue Management milestones to connections contracts
• Conclusion of latest Capacity Market Auction

This is the first step towards improving the connections process via a number of reforms as set out in our Business Plan 2 ambitions.

Overview of timescales

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• September 2022 - TEC amnesty expression of interest letter released to industry
• 1 October to 30 April 2023 - TEC amnesty expression of interest window opened
• 1 May 2023 to 30 June 2023 - Review of submissions
• 31 July 2023 - Next steps confirmed and communicated with customers

How will I know if my application is successful?

We will get in touch with each customer individually to let them know the outcome for their project. Customers will then be able to choose whether or not to go ahead with the termination/reduction in TEC. Please note if the application is not successful then queue management milestones may be added to your agreement subject to the outcome of CMP376.

The TEC amnesty is the last opportunity for projects to leave the queue with no or little cost ahead of the queue management milestones coming in place following the code modification which has recently re-started.

The ESO in cooperation with the TOs have been in close communication with Ofgem on this Amnesty for a number of months and it was agreed that a letter would be produced for Ofgem that highlights the steps required in order for the TEC Amnesty to progress. 

Download the methodology letter