As part of the UK's energy transition, all owners of generating sites in the UK are required to ensure that their installations are compliant with Loss of Mains protection regulations. The changes are critical to supporting a robust and reliable electricity network and non-compliance will be subject to enforcement action.
What is the ALoMCP?
The Accelerated Loss of Mains Change Programme was designed to incentivise owners of electricity generators to become compliant with mandatory system updates. Whilst funding options are no longer open for applications, it’s not too late to take action to comply. If you are a generator, compliance with the ALoMCP will help to safeguard resilience.
The measures required help to future-proof your power by ensuring equipment is more reliable, which in turn ensures consistent generation, and avoids interruption to earning revenue from your assets.
From the market perspective, there are many other benefits of compliance which include the network’s ability to deliver a stronger and more resilient power supply; reducing balancing costs, saving consumers and billpayers money; enabling more renewable generation to come online – a more resilient network can better support intermittent generation; and ultimately, helps support the UK’s decarbonisation goal.
Failure to comply is not an option. Enforcement action will be taken by the distribution network operator (DNO) for instances of non-compliance with the distribution code. From the first date of notification, generators will have 26 weeks to ensure compliance with G99 distribution code regulations.
Generators that are not compliant after the deadline will not be tolerated due to the inherent risk that they pose to the UK’s power supply and communities. Those not compliant from 1st September will be subject to an enforcement process that could result in the de-energisation of your site.
In order to check compliance, you must first identify sites with generation equipment that falls within the scope of G99, then check equipment and settings.
Do the changes apply to me?
The ALoMCP is relevant if your generator is applicable to the EREC G59 of the Distribution Code, was installed before February 2018, or capacity is typically between 11kW and 50MW.
If you own or operate an electricity generator that you think might be impacted by this then please act now. You can visit www.futureproofyourpower.co.uk to find out more. The website has a number of free resources to assist you with compliance and declarations.
If your generator is already compliant you must declare this as soon as possible. You can access the ENA portal to confirm compliance here: www.ena-eng.org/ALoMCP/ If you are unsure if you need to make any changes, help is available.
Contact our team, who can assist in upgrading your generator to be compliant. It’s important that you confirm that your assets are compliant before 1st September 2022 to avoid enforcement action being initiated. Contact leigh.preece@dtgen.co.uk to discuss your requirements.
This programme is led by National Grid ESO, the Energy Networks Association, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) and Independent Distribution Network Operators (IDNOs). Together, they are working to build grid resilience and drive the mission to zero-carbon.
