We’re all seeing it, aren’t we? Energy infrastructure is no longer just a background consideration in site acquisition—it’s front and centre. Whether you’re sourcing for logistics, industrial, housing, or renewable energy projects, access to electricity (and especially grid capacity) is increasingly the deciding factor in whether a site moves forward or dies on the drawing board.
So what’s really going on? And how do you adapt your acquisition strategy to stay ahead?
Let’s dig in.
Power is the new planning
We used to ask: Is the site zoned correctly? What’s the planning history? Is access viable? Now, there’s a new question that often jumps straight to the top of the list: “Can we even get enough power here?”
This shift has been triggered by two main forces:
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The push for electrification, particularly in transportation and heating, has put unprecedented pressure on the grid. From EV chargers and battery storage to air-source heat pumps and e-commerce warehouses, demand is surging across sectors.
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The UK’s Net Zero strategy means new connections need to be cleaner, smarter, and often faster. The UK Government's Powering Up Britain plan and National Grid ESO’s Future Energy Scenarios both signal huge infrastructure investment, but also highlight the need to rethink where we build and why.
Take, for example, the rollout of electric vehicle infrastructure. Local authorities and charging network operators are reporting 6–12 month delays due to limited grid capacity, even in urban centres like Birmingham and Bristol. And in East Anglia, solar farm developers have been told by UKPN (UK Power Networks) they may have to wait until after 2030 for a grid connection.
Grid maps over street maps?
Have you or your clients started overlaying grid capacity with land searches? If not, you’re already behind.
Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) like SSEN, WPD, and UKPN now publish constraint maps and capacity registers, and savvy developers are using them alongside planning layers to qualify sites much earlier. Why waste time on a site that ticks every box but has a five-year wait for connection?
This shift is happening across asset classes:
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Battery storage developers are using grid capacity maps before looking at land ownership.
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Housebuilders are being forced to rework schemes or reduce unit counts due to low-capacity substations nearby.
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Logistics and industrial operators are prioritising sites within 1km of grid assets, sometimes before looking at access or planning.
The result? Grid location is becoming a key commercial metric, not just a technical one.
Reframing the deal
What makes a site "prime" in 2025?
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Land near upgraded substations? That’s now highly bankable.
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A site with clean access to existing high-voltage infrastructure? Strategic gold.
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A plot earmarked for solar or logistics that sits in a red constraint zone? Back to the drawing board—or prepare to fund your own private network.
We’re even seeing developers pay a premium to secure rights-of-way for grid connections or to acquire slivers of land next to substations just to enable capacity-led plays. That’s a major rethink of land value.
Consider National Grid’s ‘Great Grid Upgrade’—one of the largest grid investment programmes in generations. It’s a £54 billion plan to overhaul and extend the transmission network. But the benefits aren’t evenly distributed. Some regions will be transformed by new capacity; others may still lag for years.
That’s why acquisition strategies must now be two steps ahead of the grid, not playing catch-up.
Tech is catching up
At Nimbus, we’re seeing a clear shift in how acquisition professionals search for sites: they’re layering in energy infrastructure data right alongside ownership, planning constraints, and commercial overlays.
By integrating DNO data, substation maps, and potential capacity indicators into the same platform where you assess land ownership and title, you remove weeks of wasted analysis. You can instantly see which sites have future-proof potential—and which don’t.
We believe this kind of insight shouldn’t be a back-end technical hurdle. It should be a front-line decision tool.
So we’re asking:
Are your tools helping you factor in the energy future of every site? Or are you still flying blind when it comes to power?
Final thought
What if the best site isn’t where the market wants to be, but where the grid allows you to build?
It’s not just about opportunity anymore—it’s about viability. And that means understanding energy as part of the land itself.
Ready to see how energy data can change the way you acquire sites? Request your personalised demo with Nimbus now.
Or tell us this: How is energy strategy reshaping your deal flow right now?
