Changing the circuit: Why G2TWQ waves a new flag for developers
The UK’s push toward Clean Power 2030 has triggered one of the most significant shifts the connections regime has ever seen.
The widely publicised new reform, G2TWQ, is reshaping the transmission queue to prioritise projects that are genuinely deliverable and strategically aligned with national energy goals.
Of course, most developers understand Gate 2. What’s less clear is how to stay competitive in a regime where deliverability now dictates queue position. The critical questions are:
- How do we secure and maintain Gate 2 status?
- How do we avoid slipping in future windows?
- How do we meet the escalating evidence requirements of the enduring regime?
Your ability to answer these questions will define your success in the new G2TWQ landscape.
In this new evidence-driven race to the top, working with an experienced IDNO team, like Aurora’s, isn’t just beneficial – it’s now a competitive necessity.
As a leading-IDNO, our role is simple: ensure projects not only meet the threshold, but outperform it – accelerating timelines, securing investor confidence, and building readiness pathways that ensure your projects stay ahead of the emerging requirements.
Before diving deeper into the process, here’s what this reform means in practice:
Critical corners: Why G2TWQ is the ultimate performance test
More than 700 GW of projects sit in a queue designed for 200–225 GW by 2030. G2TWQ is NESO’s reset – a complete reordering based on deliverability, not chronology.
For developers, the stakes are high:
- A strong evidence package can move your project forward by years;
- Insufficient readiness will push you back into the baseline queue;
- Cost exposure rises for every month of delay;
- Late-stage design or planning gaps can now directly determine whether you connect.
The challenge is no longer understanding the process – it’s knowing how to compete within it.
The Aurora advantage: Fine-tuning your route through G2TWQ
Based on our work with developers across the UK, these are the biggest G2TWQ challenges we see arise time and time again, and how we help mitigate them:
Challenge one: Readiness gaps that jeopardise Gate 2 status
NESO’s bar for readiness is now significantly higher. Developers often fall short on:
- Land rights completeness
- Planning certainty or credible routes
- Design maturity and integration
- Long-lead procurement programmes
- Evidence of deliverable, bankable schedules
The Aurora solution: We identify and close the readiness gaps that directly affect your Gate 2 outcome. This means we can fill evidence gaps, optimise designs, and build structured, defensible programmes that meet or exceed NESO’s requirements. Our in-house capabilities, from legal teams to design, can significantly speed up processes and offer you a competitive advantage.
Challenge two: Misalignment with strategic criteria
Developers must now face the fact that readiness alone no longer secures connection offers. Projects must also meet at least one strategic alignment test to meet Gate 2 requirements – such as Clean Power 2030 limits or designated project categories.
The Aurora solution: We map your project against strategic pathways, and we package evidence to strengthen alignment with priority categories and regional planning priorities.
Challenge three: Supply chain and procurement risk undermining credibility
Long-lead equipment, supply chain constraints and procurement uncertainty are among the most common reasons NESO flags projects, and developers can lose their position.
The Aurora solution: We integrate procurement and logistics planning early – especially for transformers and critical items – ensuring credible timelines and cost modelling.
Challenge four: Late-stage redesigns or engineering uncertainties
NESO expects design maturity. Projects with unclear, inconsistent or undeveloped designs risk slipping in future windows.
The Aurora solution: We bring our expert, in-house design integration expertise to you project from day one, which reduces redesign risk and ensures all engineering evidence aligns with the readiness checklist.
Challenge five: Fragmented coordination across developers, ICPs, IDNOs and network operators
Misalignment is one of the most common causes of delayed or weakened evidence submissions.
The Aurora solution: We coordinate the full chain: bringing all key stakeholders together – developers, ICPs, IDNOs, DNOs, TOs and NESO – ensuring a unified approach that strengthens your position.
A recap of the new race rules: the G2TWQ process in simple terms
Most developers are familiar with the core mechanics, but here’s a reminder on how they affect your project strategically:
1. Evidence drives queue position: Readiness and strategic alignment determine whether you reach Gate 2 – and therefore whether you get a confirmed connection date.
2. Gate 2 is now competitive: Deliverable projects advance. Projects “in formation” fall back.
3. This is a one-off reset: The entire pipeline is being reordered – the biggest shift since the queue began.
4. The enduring regime is coming: Future windows will be stricter, recurring…and will require ongoing evidence updates. Understanding this is important, but acting on it immediately is essential.
How to interpret your NESO notification (and what to do next)
When reviewing your G2TWQ classification:
1. Gate status
- Gate 2 → Confirmed date and point; readiness meets NESO’s threshold
- Gate 1 → Baseline queue; evidence must improve for future windows
2. Phase allocation
- Indicates whether your energisation trajectory sits in the late 2020s (Phase 1) or early–mid 2030s (Phase 2).
3. Detailed check status
- Clean pass → Strong foundation for enduring regime
- Flags or caveats → Must be addressed now to protect future position
Aurora can assess your notification and identify strategic intervention points to secure or strengthen your position.
In summary, this is how Aurora creates advantage in the G2TWQ era:
We know that developers aren’t looking for generic support – you need a partner who understands exactly how to position a project for Gate 2 success.
Aurora delivers:
- Technical design integration
- Aligning engineering maturity with NESO’s criteria
- Planning and land rights validation
- Ensuring the evidence package is robust, defensible and complete
- Procurement pathway development
- De-risking long-lead items and building bankable supply chain plans
- Readiness and strategic alignment optimisation
- Identifying gaps and strengthening your qualification position
- Programme and financial structuring
- Building credible, investor-friendly timelines and cost profiles
- Whole-system coordination
- Unifying developers, ICPs, IDNOs and network operators behind a single, deliverable strategy
Our goal: get your project into Gate 2 – and keep it there.
The long race: Why the enduring regime is the real test
G2TWQ is only the reset, the enduring regime will introduce:
- Recurring evidence windows
- Stronger entry requirements
- Continuous readiness assessments
- Tighter planning and procurement expectations
- Developers who treat readiness as a one-off exercise will fall behind.
Those who treat it as a strategic capability will consistently outperform the queue.
Aurora ensures your project stays on the right side of that divide.
Ready to strengthen your Gate 2 position?
The next window won’t wait, and neither should your readiness review, close the gap now to race ahead. Aurora can strengthen your Gate 2 position today, contact our team to discuss: info@aurora-utilities.co.uk
