Regulatory Other

On 13 November 2025 Ofgem published its decision on the Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) ASTI ODI Penalty Exemption Period request, partially approving the joint venture's application and awarding 57 days of penalty exemption against an original request for 480 days. The decision closed an outcome process that opened with consultation on 10 April 2025 (closed 23 May 2025), following the JV's claim of a 16-month delay to the project's ASTI required-delivery date driven by global HVDC supply-chain constraints. Ofgem accepted that supply-chain conditions were challenging but rejected the JV's broader case, finding that the constraints were not 'global' (no worldwide unavailability of equipment or capacity at the time of the EGL1 tender), not 'outside the licensee's reasonable control' (stakeholders were aware of supply-chain constraints in 2022 with sufficient notice to mitigate), and not the cause of the delay (which may have been attributable to an error or failure on the licensee's part as a result of its procurement strategy). The 57-day exemption substantially reduces but does not eliminate the JV's ODI penalty exposure, with the project's revised expected delivery date now around April 2029 — approximately 16 months later than the original ASTI required-delivery date. The decision sets a precedent for how Ofgem will treat ASTI delay-event applications across the EGL programme.