Capital is arriving faster than equipment.

On 18 August 2026, DataVita closed a £300 million debt facility to expand DV1 and build DV3 in the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. ING, ABN AMRO and Santander provided £252.5 million, with 80% covered by a £202 million National Wealth Fund guarantee, with the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services on the balance. CoreWeave has contracted every megawatt on a 15-year lease. Managing director Danny Quinn: "Work is well advanced on site, every megawatt is contracted, and the first facility completes this year."

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This announcement solves both the capital and demand problems. With the National Wealth Fund backing similar deals, more will follow.

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Meanwhile, Siemens Energy's Grid Technologies order backlog reached €51 billion at the end of June 2026, with orders up 28% year on year and transformers the largest single contributor. The company plans to expand transformer and gas-insulated switchgear capacity by around 50%, and that capacity arrives in 2030.

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Capital now outpaces equipment. The constraint has shifted from funding projects to securing timely equipment delivery.

What changed on 29 July, and why it changes the answer.

On 29 July 2026, Ofgem launched the Curate consultation on demand connections reform. It closes on 16 September, with decisions due later this year. Interpreting it solely as a cost or discipline measure misses the wider implications.

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The scale first. The demand connections queue grew from 41 GW in November 2024 to 125 GW by June 2025. Around 73 GW of that is data centre projects, roughly 315 of them, against peak GB demand in 2025/26 of 45 GW. Ofgem puts the implied capital expenditure behind that data centre pipeline at £693 billion.

Two proposed mechanisms matter. The first is a commitment fee for data centre projects at or above 40 MW, ranging from £237,500 to £712,500 per MW, equivalent to 2.5% to 7.5% of average capital expenditure. It is returnable, held from offer acceptance to energisation, and forfeited if the project terminates or fails compliance.

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The second is a set of queue management milestones. One of them, M2.Dc, requires proof of procurement of critical equipment such as transformers, switchgear or other long-lead electrical items, by the point at which statutory consents and planning permission are secured. Acceptable evidence includes purchase invoices, procurement contracts, or supplier commitments. Miss a milestone, and you lose your queue position, and with it the fee.

Taken together, these proposals change the answer to the original question.

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In a queue of around 315 data centre projects, those able to evidence equipment procurement at the required milestone retain their position. Those unable to do so lose it. Accelerating energisation is not about building faster, but about demonstrating delivery capability ahead of others. Equipment procurement is the proof.

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This is a consultation, not settled policy. It closes on 16 September, and the final rules may differ. But the direction is consistent with everything the connections queue has moved toward since NESO's reform, which reordered the queue on the principle of first ready and needed, first connected. Readiness determines position. Ofgem is now proposing that equipment counts as readiness.

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We have not found equivalent confirmed proposals in other European markets. Great Britain is where this is concrete today.

The queue nobody counts.

This is often overlooked, and it explains why ordering earlier is more complex than it appears.

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There are two queues, not one.

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The first queue is for a manufacturing slot, which is widely discussed and reflected in lead time figures. The second begins once your specification is confirmed, as you wait for your unit to be built. With a conventional order from a single manufacturer, a specification mismatch means requoting and rejoining the queue. This second queue is where time is often lost.

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This also explains why standardisation does not deliver the expected results. There are around 80,000 transformer designs on the market, and current standardisation efforts would reduce this to about 60,000. While this is a reduction, it does little to change factory operations, as production lines rely on repetition for efficiency, and 60,000 variants do not provide it. Reducing to four or ten designs would transform output, but at 60,000, each unit remains largely unique and each project still requires matching to a specific design.

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The solution to the second queue is not standardisation, but holding positions with multiple manufacturers simultaneously.

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By reserving capacity across a panel of verified OEMs, you secure positions with several manufacturers at once. A finalised specification is not required, as the position is not linked to a single factory. Once the specification is confirmed, it matches to the appropriate panel member and manufacturing begins immediately. This approach eliminates a wait that most programmes have not separately accounted for.

What to do, in order.

1. Move the equipment conversation before FID, not after it. Under the proposed milestones, procurement evidence is needed by the time consents and planning are secured, which for most programmes is before financial close. Treat equipment as a pre-FID workstream alongside land, power and consent. By the time equipment risk reaches a lender's technical due diligence, it gets priced, and an HV transformer with no order behind it becomes a contingency line.

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2. Hold your position across a panel rather than with a single manufacturer. This allows you to commit before the specification is finalised and removes the second queue. A specification change then becomes a rematch, not a requeue.

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3. Consider manufacturers beyond the major OEMs. Hitachi Energy, Siemens Energy and similar firms have order books in the tens of billions. Qualified capacity exists outside this group, including manufacturers already supplying European networks. Verification is essential and requires real effort, but it is weeks of work compared to years of waiting.

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4. Monitor the pre-FID capital stack as well as the schedule. A 10 to 30% deposit on a 150-week transformer remains on the balance sheet for two to three years. If Curate is implemented, a commitment fee of up to £712,500 per MW will also apply before energisation. Both costs arise before revenue. Aligning equipment payments with your draw schedule, rather than OEM billing cycles, keeps both the schedule and regulatory requirements manageable. The procurement evidence does two jobs. The contract or supplier commitment that secures your manufacturing position is the same document that evidences the M2.Dc milestone. One spend, one piece of paper, two outcomes: a delivery date and a defended queue position. Most programmes are currently sequencing these separately, which is why they end up paying for them separately.

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5. Ensure the slot remains reallocable. NESO's reform prioritised 283 GW from a queue exceeding 700 GW, leaving over 300 GW in Gate 1, with applications reopening in the second half of 2026. Dates have shifted and will continue to do so. Capital committed years in advance against a moving date must be able to move with it. A reservation held across a panel and portfolio can be reallocated; a single fixed order cannot.

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6. Respond to the consultation. It closes on 16 September 2026. If the milestone evidence requirements will determine your queue position, the definition of acceptable evidence is worth an opinion from the operators who will have to produce it.

Frequently asked questions.

Does procuring equipment early actually improve my grid connection position? Under Ofgem's Curate proposals, published 29 July 2026, evidence of procuring long-lead electrical equipment is a milestone requirement for data centre connections, and missing a milestone means losing queue position. So early procurement defends your position while projects that cannot evidence it fall away. This is a consultation until 16 September 2026, so treat it as the likely direction rather than a settled rule.

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What counts as proof of procurement? The consultation names purchase invoices, procurement contracts and supplier commitments. A supplier commitment is the lowest-capital route to that evidence, which matters because the milestone falls due around consents and planning, typically before financial close.

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Can we reserve manufacturing capacity before FID without a finalised specification? Yes, we hold the position across a panel of manufacturers rather than against one factory's line. Holding it with a single manufacturer generally requires a specification that fits what they build, and a change means requoting.

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Why not just standardise our transformer design? Because the design space is too large for standardisation to do the job. There are on the order of 80,000 transformer designs on the market, and the standardisation effort underway would bring that to roughly 60,000. A factory gets its throughput from repetition, and 60,000 variants does not give it any. The route through is holding position with multiple qualified manufacturers, not converging on one common design. (Figures reported by the Financial Times. Citation to be added before publication.)

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Are lead times worse in Europe than in the US? On HV equipment, yes. US figures for substation-class transformers sit at 75 to 110 weeks. European HV transformer lead times run up to 40 months, and incumbent OEM quotes on critical HV equipment run 4+ years.

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What happens to our order if the grid connection date moves? That depends on how we secured the position. A conventional order against a fixed delivery date offers little flexibility. A reservation structured for reallocation across a portfolio does. Given NESO left over 300 GW in Gate 1 and reopens applications in H2 2026, this is worth structuring for.

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Do we have to buy from our approved OEM list? No, but widening it means verifying the manufacturer, the design and the delivery commitment properly, rather than dropping the risk management the list exists to provide.

Accelerate your energisation now.

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If you're working to a 2028 or 2029 energisation date, we'll give you a clear view of what capacity is still buyable for it, and what evidence you could hold by the time the milestone falls due. One site or full portfolio.