Connections Offer Expenses

We will engage with stakeholders on Connection Offer Expenses (COE).

In 2018, all DNOs introduced COE fees (also known as Assessment & Design or A&D fees) to drive efficiencies in the connection process and ensure fairer allocation of costs.

We charge a COE fee for the budget estimates, feasibility studies and quotations we produce for our large works connections customers. We only recover the costs that we have reasonably incurred when completing the detailed design work required to produce these offers and we do not make a profit on the COE fees we charge.

We understand however that the differences in the way DNOs charge for COE can be confusing and so we have been engaging with stakeholders to help them understand how, why and when our fees are applied.

Our COE fees remained unchanged for more than three years. In July 2021, we updated our COE as part of an annual review we undertake to ensure our fees remain cost-reflective of the services we provide. As part of this, we updated our guide and  webpage to reflect the new COE fees and latest information. We wrote to more than 6,000 connections stakeholders to inform them of the change and the reasons for our decision and published an open letter on our website. We also set up a dedicated email address so that customers who had questions about the new COE fees or how they had been applied would receive a timely response. 

To find out more visit www.northernpowergrid.com/connection-offer-expenses