The government has published its technical decision document that the crucial aspects of the Les-Cap-and-Floor scheme (LDES) confirm with a long duration, with an increase in the minimum duration of the most important updates.
The document, released by Regulator ofgem on 11 March, describes the final umbrella rules and requirements for the scheme and how it will be implemented, although considerable details still have to be worked out.
The scheme offers a CAP-and-Floor income protection for 20-25 years, so that all capital costs can be recovered, and is effective a subsidy for LDES projects that may not be commercially viable without. Most energy storage projects that are used in the UK are nowadays Lithium-ion battery energy systems (BESS) between one to three hours expensive (very occasionally higher).
One of the most important new details is that, after feedback from the industry, the minimum duration for projects to be eligible has been increased from six hours to eight hours of continuous nominal capacity.
The aspect of ‘continuously assessed force’ prevents shorter endurance projects from offering in a smaller part of their MW capacity to function as an eight-hour system.
Another interesting detail of different commentators is that the cap is a ‘soft’, which means that it makes it possible for extra income to be shared between developers and consumers. Exact details about the ratio still have to be determined.
Lithium-ion seems to be eligible if the government initially suggested that it would be excluded if the LDES schedule was first proposed in January 2024. Our sister site Energy storage. I just published a guest blog of Lithium-ion OEM for whatever The company argued that Lithium-ion was now cost-competitive with a maximum of 10 hours of discharge duration.
The structure of the schedule remains unchanged with two streams. Stream 1 will be for technologies with a technology level (TRL) of 9 and will have a minimum size of 100 MW, while stream 2 will be for people with a TRL of 8 and has a minimum size of 50 MW.
The government strives for the schedule to support the deployment between 2.7 GW and 7.7 GW from LDES capacity until 2035, based on the future energy scenarios of Neso (2024). With the duration of 8 hours, that means a storage capacity of 21.6-61.6GWH from LDES, possibly more after 2035.
Orgem initial cost reviews and determine provisional CAP and Floor levels in his project assessment decision in the first quarter of 2026. In that quarter, the regulator will also see the progress mile posts explain that
Developers must meet to guarantee timely delivery of projects.
Due to the ongoing reforms of the schedule Connection Arrikes, projects only have to provide evidence that grid
Connection application has been submitted and there will be flexibility when obtaining permission from the planning
Within the delivery time to be online by 2030. The reform of the grid connections was discussed by OFEM’s Head of Connections Policy Alasdair Macmillan on the Energy Storage Summit EU 2025 in London last month, set up by our publisher Solar Media.
Orgem said it too and Neso is investigating or successful bids for the LDES cap and floor
who have lost their place in the queue because of the reforms will be able to re -introduce.
The window to apply for the schedule will open in April. Read the full technical decision document from OFEM here.