We help you design your accelerated power sourcing strategy. Grid connection, embedded generation, BESS. AI Growth Zones. Connections Accelerator Service 50 GW of Datacentre Demand Just Joined the Queue Data Centres AI Growth Zones, a 6 GW government target, and a new Connections Accelerator are redrawing the UK's power demand map. What does this mean for energy investors? Contact CMEI Datacentres, AI Growth Zones, and the UK Power Grid 50 GW of Datacentre Demand Just Hit the UK Grid Queue The AI infrastructure arms race has arrived on British shores — and it is reshaping the UK's power system at a speed that network planners, regulators, and energy investors are in awe of. Contracted demand offers on the UK grid rose from 41 GW in November 2024 to 125 GW by June 2025 , driven overwhelmingly by hyperscale datacentre projects. In February 2026, The Register reported that the total datacentre-related grid demand queued across the UK had reached 50 GW — equivalent to more than twice the UK's average electricity demand!! This is not a distant projection. It is happening now. And the implications for energy developers, investors, and network planners are profound. The Scale of the Demand Shift Oxford Economics forecasts that UK datacentre electricity consumption will grow from 5 TWh in 2023 to 26.2 TWh by 2030 — equivalent to 8.8% of total UK electricity demand. NESO estimates that datacentres could drive up to 71 TWh of additional grid demand over the next 25 years. The UK already has 477 datacentre facilities in operation, making it the world's third-largest marke t — behind only the US and Germany. That base is set to expand rapidly, with major developments planned across London and the South East, Greater Manchester, Wales, and Scotland. Scotland is emerging as a strategic location of particular significance. Its access to renewable energy from wind and hydro , combined with a lower land cost base and emerging government support structures, is attracting projects at scale. In Scotland alone, 5GW of datacentre capacity is currently in the planning system — already exceeding Scotland's entire peak winter electricity demand. AI Growth Zones: Opportunity and Complication The government's response has been to designate five AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) across England, Scotland, and Wales, with planning reform and energy access incentives designed to fast-track development. The zones offer energy price discounts — up to £24/MWh in Scotland and £16/MWh in Cumbria and the North East — as well as access to a new Connections Accelerator Service that aims to bypass the standard grid connection queue. Non datacentre demand owners should be worried - you are on your own! The North Wales AI Growth Zone is particularly notable. It is the only zone explicitly linked to a specific energy supply solution: the first Rolls-Royce SMR fleet at Wylf a. The government's framing positions Wylfa's SMRs and the AI Growth Zone as a co-located clean energy corridor — compute powered by 24/7 nuclear generation, designed for the load profile that AI workloads demand. Tension : prioritising AI datacentres for grid capacity and planning permission could displace other uses, including housing and conventional energy development. The Connections Accelerator Service effectively creates a two-tier connection system — and the criteria for "strategic" status are not yet settled. The "Bring Your Own Generation" Model The most sophisticated hyperscalers are not waiting for the grid. As detailed in CM Energy Insight's commentary on Google's $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect Power , the dominant strategic model is now co-location: solar, battery storage, and backup generation sited alongside the datacentre, connected to the grid at the substation boundary but keeping most power flows internal. In the UK, this model is being explored through private-wire connections, behind-the-meter generation, and microgrid configurations. National Grid's Data Centre Impact Study has modelled the implications of widespread adoption. For UK energy developers, this creates a direct opportunity: battery storage projects, flexible generation, and renewable assets near planned AI Growth Zones are now being actively evaluated as potential anchor assets for co-located datacentre power supply. The commercial structure — long-term, creditworthy, high-capacity offtake from hyperscalers — could provide the revenue certainty that merchant BESS and renewables projects have historically lacked. The intersection of AI infrastructure and energy supply creates complex investment questions. CM Energy Insight provides the cross-domain advisory to navigate them. Let's Start a Conversation Whether you need a sounding board on a live deal, an interim project lead, or a fresh perspective on market strategy — the first conversation is always free and always confidential. Phone: +44 7884 231 261 Email: chris@cmenergyinsight.com LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/cmenergyinsight Name* Email* Company* Message* Send Message

Immediate response interim management NED for energy businesses at critical project and investment phases. Interim Management and Non-Executive Director Support Senior interim management and board-level NED support for energy asset developers, investors, and funds during critical project phases. Contact CMEI Sometimes What a Project Needs Is Not a Report. It Is a Decision-Maker. Energy transition leadership requires a practitioner who can hold the geopolitical, regulatory, and financial picture simultaneously. Scar tissue is a prerequisite, not an advantage. There are moments in the lifecycle of an energy project when a consultancy deliverable is not the right answer. When the programme is off track, the financing is stalled, the EPC contractor is in dispute, or the board needs independent oversight that the executive team cannot (due to bandwidth) provide to itself — the requirement is for senior hands-on leadership, not analytical support. CM Energy Insight provides two distinct forms of senior personal engagement: interim executive management and non-executive director support. Both are grounded in the same fundamental proposition: forty years of direct experience in energy asset development, commodity trading, project finance, and energy transition strategy, applied at the point where it is most needed. Interim Management: When the Project Needs a Senior Leader, Not a Consultant Interim management engagements are typically triggered by one of four circumstances: a leadership gap caused by departure or incapacity; a project that has reached a critical phase — FID, financial close, EPC mobilisation — that requires dedicated senior resource; a turnaround situation where previous management has failed to deliver; or a strategic inflection point where the organisation needs external discipline to make and implement a decision. The engagements CM Energy Insight undertakes at interim executive level include: Project Director roles for energy assets at development, consenting, financing, or construction stage — BESS, onshore wind, solar, gas peaker, hydrogen, and waste-to-value. Chief Strategy/Commercial/Executive Officer engagements for energy businesses navigating M&A, market entry, commodity strategy redesign, or fund formation. Programme director roles for multi-asset portfolios where a developer or investor needs a single point of accountability for project execution across a pipeline. Turnaround management for projects or businesses where commercial assumptions have broken down, relationships with key counterparties are stressed, or programme delivery is at risk. The distinguishing characteristic of an effective interim executive is not the speed with which they produce a document. It is the speed with which they understand the commercial and technical reality of the situation, build the trust of the team and the board, state what's wrong, and make the decisions that move the project forward. That requires direct experience — not delegation to a delivery team. Non-Executive Director: Independent Oversight at Board Level The energy transition investment market has generated a large number of special purpose vehicles , project companies, and fund structures that require independent board governance. For family offices investing in a BESS platform, a PE fund building a portfolio of flexible generation assets, or an SMR development company preparing for institutional investors, a credible and experienced independent NED is not a governance box to tick. It is a material contributor to investment committee confidence and long-term asset value. The contribution an effective energy sector NED makes is specific and measurable: Investment and commercial scrutiny — challenging financial model assumptions, stress-testing revenue cases, and ensuring the board is not making decisions on the basis of optimistic projections without adequate sensitivity analysis. Regulatory and policy navigation — bringing current, direct knowledge of the UK energy regulatory framework — Ofgem, DESNZ, NESO, the Capacity Market, REMA, grid connection reform — to the board's strategic discussions. Policy risk is a first-order risk for every UK energy asset in 2026. A NED who understands it in depth is not a luxury. Stakeholder and counterparty credibility — in an industry where reputation and relationships matter, the composition of the board signals to lenders, offtakers, and co-investors the seriousness and competence of the enterprise. Governance and accountability — ensuring the executive team is held to account for programme delivery, commercial commitments, and risk management in a structured and disciplined way. CM Energy Insight's NED engagements are selective. A board position is taken only where there is genuine value to be contributed — and where the time commitment can be sustained at the level the role demands. The result is a small number of active NED positions characterised by genuine engagement, not nominal governance. Who This Is For Interim and NED support from CM Energy Insight is typically sought by: Asset developers who have reached a critical development stage and need senior leadership resource that their in-house team cannot provide. Investment funds and family offices building or managing a portfolio of UK energy assets who need experienced board-level oversight and challenge. Corporate boards in the energy sector undergoing strategic transformation — entry into new markets, commodity strategy redesign, M&A integration, or response to regulatory change. Lenders and investors who need an independent technical or commercial expert to sit on the board of a project company in which they have a position. The engagement is always personal. Chris Moore leads every assignment directly — there is no sub-delegation to a junior team. That is the CM Energy Insight model, and it is not negotiable. If your project or business is at a point where senior leadership or independent oversight would make a material difference, let's have a direct conversation. Contact CM Energy Insight. Let's Start a Conversation Whether you need a sounding board on a live deal, an interim project lead, or a fresh perspective on market strategy — the first conversation is always free and always confidential. Phone: +44 7884 231 261 Email: chris@cmenergyinsight.com LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/cmenergyinsight Name* Email* Company* Message* Send Message

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Concept, Design, to FID-ready investment case. CM Energy Insight provides advisory on renewable and flexible energy asset development. From strategic need, through siting, planning, procurement, and commodity agreements to FID-ready investment case. Asset Development Contact CMEI Most Energy Projects Don't Fail at Construction. They Fail in Development . From site identification to FID, the critical failure points are rarely technical. They are the intersections — where commodity risk meets capital structure, or where policy shifts meet offtake terms. As illustrated across this website, the UK energy market is in a period of structural transformation. Clean Power 2030 demands a deployment rate of new generation and storage capacity without precedent in peacetime. The grid connection queue has been reset. Planning reform is underway. Offtake markets are being redesigned. Capital is available — but selective. Investors are funding projects led by teams that can demonstrate they understand what has changed and why , not just what the textbook says. In this environment, the quality of project development and its VDR documentation — the decisions made between concept and Final Investment Decision — determines whether an asset gets built, gets funded, and generates the returns its sponsors expect. What Development Actually Involves in 2026 Energy asset development has never been a straight line, but the number of intersecting variables has multiplied in 2026 !. A BESS project that looked straightforward two years ago now needs to resolve gate 2 connection positioning, post-auction capacity market viability, a revenue stack that is shifting quarter by quarter, a LDES cap-and-floor interaction assessment (if duration is above four hours), location price signals, and a financing structure that satisfies lenders who have become significantly more sophisticated in their due diligence requirements!! A gas peaker project faces a different set of questions — but no simpler ones. T-1 and T-4 capacity market auctions remain open to flexible gas, but the policy trajectory is clear: REMA's wholesale market reform and the Clean Power 2030 programme will progressively marginalise unabated gas(??). A credible development case must now model the asset's economic life under zonal pricing scenarios, account for potential carbon cost trajectories, and present a coherent end-of-life or (BESS, SMR?) conversion pathway. Lenders and investors are asking these questions at the point of commitment — which means developers must have the answers before they go to market. SMR development occupies a different position on the risk curve entirely. The first (Rolls-Royce) SMR fleet at Wylfa will not reach FID until approximately 2029. Between now and then, the programme will consume significant pre-FID advisory and development resource — in owner's engineering, commercial structuring, offtake design, supply chain development, and regulatory engagement. The CM Energy Insight Development Pathway - 40 years of experience. Development advisory is not generic. The value it delivers depends entirely on whether the adviser has (repeatedly) done this before — across technologies, across market cycles, and across the full journey from concept need statement to FID. CM Energy Insight brings that track record. The core development pathway covers: Concept scoping and market positioning — establishing the commercial and political rationale, technology selection criteria, site and grid strategy, and the realistic development timeline before development capital is budgeted. Grid connection strategy and Gate 2 positioning — analysing transmission line location and queue position, connection offer risk, and the strategic options available to a project under the reformed NESO connection framework. Permitting and planning strategy — development consent sequencing for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) and locally determined consents, including environmental impact assessment management and stakeholder engagement. Procurement and EPC strategy — competitive procurement design, contractor risk allocation, insurance design, and contract terms for a market in which equipment supply chains are stretched and cost certainty is harder to achieve than at any point in the last decade. Commodity agreements and offtake structuring — PPA term sheets, route-to-market strategy, capacity market positioning, and flexibility market access — all calibrated to the current state of the market, not a model built three years ago. The FID-ready investment case — a fully integrated project brief, financial model, credible independent market analysis, shareholder agreements, lender facility agreements, risk register, insurance design, that a serious investor, lender, or project finance bank can read without supplementary explanation. Why Boutique Development Advisory Delivers More Large advisory firms build detailed models. CM Energy Insight builds investment cases . The difference is not a matter of scale — it is a matter of accountability. When a senior practitioner leads the engagement from concept to close, the development case is internally consistent, the assumptions are defensible, and the commercial judgements are made by someone with direct and credible market experience — not delegated to an analyst in a workstream. In a market where the cost of a development error — a missed gate 2 offer, a mis-specified PPA, a planning condition that triggers a delay — can destroy project economics, the quality of the development team is not a secondary consideration. It is the primary risk. CM Energy Insight works with asset developers, asset owners, and project sponsors at every stage of the development lifecycle. To discuss your project, request a conversation. Let's Start a Conversation Whether you need a sounding board on a live deal, an interim project lead, or a fresh perspective on market strategy — the first conversation is always free and always confidential. Phone: +44 7884 231 261 Email: chris@cmenergyinsight.com LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/cmenergyinsight Name* Email* Company* Message* Send Message

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