What are Connection Milestones?

Some areas of our distribution networks have limited capacity to connect new customers and, when that capacity is fully utilised, network reinforcement may be required to create new capacity. This may have both cost and time implications for connecting customers.

When we assess new connection applications we factor in all connections to the relevant parts of the network including any connections that are in the connection queue – in other words, accepted but not yet connected. If these queued connections are delayed or stall completely how do we recover the capacity?

For demand connections at or above 5MVA we will agree and contract measurable milestones to enable the progress of a new connection’s construction to be monitored. The ENA Connection Milestone Management process was developed with all DNOs and through public engagement during 2025. This is used to provide a consistent basis across Great Britain to specify milestones and timescales. It also covers the process where a stalled project may be removed from a network’s connection queue, ensuring that network capacity is available for other projects that are ready to progress.

The main components of the ENA Connection Milestone Management are:

• Connection Milestone(s), sometimes referred to as simply Milestone(s), are agreed benchmarks by which DNOs and their customers can measure and track project progress towards a contracted connection date. Customers will be required to submit evidence to us to confirm that a Milestone has been met.
  
  
• Milestone dates - Milestones include a contracted date reflecting the latest date by which the customer must meet the Milestone - customers may meet the Milestone before that date.
  
  
• Milestone Remedy Notice - this is the process by which customers will be informed of upcoming and/or overdue Milestone dates and the length of time permitted for remedy if a Milestone date is not met.