The Energy Transition | UK government signs US nuclear power agreement

This week we look at the UK's new deal with the US on nuclear power, the continued development of the new nuclear National Policy Statement, and more. 

Government signs UK-US deal on nuclear power

The UK government has announced a new agreement with the USA to streamline regulatory approvals for nuclear energy projects, the Atlantic Partnership for Advanced Nuclear Energy.

The agreement, which is expected to be signed at this week's state visit from US President Donald Trump, will allow companies that have passed safety approvals in the USA to fast-track their approvals in the UK market, and vice versa. This is designed to enable additional collaboration of nuclear technologies in the two markets and speed up approval times, with an estimated reduction in the time it takes to licence new projects from the current three to four years, to roughly two.

The new deal coincides with various commercial deals expected to be announced this week under the partnership. These include Last Energy and DP World's proposed "micro modular" plant located at the London Gateway port.

Ed Miliband, energy secretary, said the agreement underlines the government's commitment to "kickstarting a golden age of nuclear in this country, joining forces with the US to turbocharge new nuclear developments and secure the technologies of the future."

Government continues development of new nuclear National Policy Statement

As part of its wider review of the UK's planning rules, the government has been collating views on how the new National Policy Statement (NPS) for new nuclear (EN-7) should be applied. EN-7 is intended to set the criteria applicable to developers when applying for development consent for all future nuclear power stations in the UK.

EN-7 will represent a significant policy shift from the current EN-6 regime. While EN-6 was restricted to apply only to projects with an installed capacity of 1GW or greater, given the recent developments on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), there is a feeling among consultation respondents (and experts who recently gave verbal evidence to the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee) that SMRs should be brought within the scope of EN-7. There was also a prevailing view among expert respondents that developers should be enabled to assess potential nuclear sites themselves, in contrast to the process under EN-6 where potential development sites had to be nominated explicitly by the government in the policy statement.

The purpose of the latest enquiry, held on 10 September by the Energy Security and Net Zero committee, aimed to assess whether the latest EN-7 approach provided a "coherent and effective" framework for enabling the UK government's nuclear ambitions. Generally, the respondents (a collection of industry experts and participants) were positive about the developments proposed under EN-7. Alastair Evans, director at Rolls Royce SMR, stated that EN-7 took "the right approach" to enabling the UK to increase its overall nuclear output in the medium term, and Tom Greatrex (Nuclear Industry Association) commented that EN-7 could help provide a platform for the government to reach the target set for gigawatt capacity (24GW) whereas EN-6 would not have been sufficient.

The government will now take the views provided and assess whether the proposed EN-7 framework goes far enough. Great British Energy, the government's publicly owned energy company, has urged the government to relax rules such as the Semi-Urban Population Density Criterion, which it argues are no longer appropriate in the new technology environment, where nuclear projects come in many shapes and sizes such as SMRs and AMRs, rather than purely gigawatt scale projects.

The final NPS is expected to be published by the end of 2025.

Ofgem consults on early competition Offshore Transmission Owner build model

Ofgem has opened a consultation on proposals for establishing an early competition Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) build model.

Ofgem previously consulted on the OFTO build model in April 2024, which produced results indicating stakeholder preference for OFTO involvement earlier in the project development stages in order to "unlock greater innovation and reduce costs" as well as "better address potential cooperation and interface issues between multiple generators, OFTOs and supply chain". This subsequent consultation is to seek stakeholder views on the proposals, and to better understand the ways in which OFTOs can support the build-out of offshore non-radial assets.

The consultation is requesting views on:

• design and scope of the early competition OFTO build model;
• potential for a centralised tender approach, where Ofgem could trigger tenders; and
• opportunities to align elements of the OFTO build model with the onshore Competitively Appointed Transmission Owner (CATO) framework.

This consultation is open until 30 October 2025 and any interested stakeholders are invited to send responses to OFTObuild@ofgem.gov.uk.

UK's largest battery energy storage system reaches financial close

Fidra Energy has announced that it has reached financial close on its £445 million funding its 1,400MW / 3,100MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project which will be located at its Thorpe Marsh site in Doncaster.

The project is predicted to export over 2 million MWh a year, which Fidra cites as being able to supply power to an estimated 785,000 homes. It is expected to be three times larger than any existing BESS project within the United Kingdom and among the largest BESS facility in Europe. It is expected to be operational in mid-2027.

Fidra Energy stated that, paired with its planned 500MW / 1,100 MWh BESS project at West Burton, Nottinghamshire, the project could provide up to 11% of the storage capacity required by the UK government's Clean Power 2030 plan.

A total of £1 billion of funding was raised for the project, which includes up to £200 million from the government-backed National Wealth Fund, which Fidra notes represents the largest BESS financing in Europe to date.

This article was written with the assistance of Oliver Derham and Adam Budd, trainee solicitors.