Distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO is struggling to keep up with an increasing inflow of applications for connection terms by investors behind solar energy projects, while, in many cases, many applications, when finally processed, are not being approved as a result of network saturation.

This problem mainly concerns smaller-scale investments whose capacity is not enough to warrant grid connections via the power grid operator IPTO. DEDDIE is not able to upgrade the network with substations, wherever this is technically possible.

Though the distribution operator has made considerable administrative progress it has not been enough to cope with the increased number of applications.

In the first half of 2020, DEDDIE responded, either positively or negatively, to a total of 1,500 connection term applications by RES investors representing a total of 580 MW, energypress sources informed.

This is almost double the inflow processed by DEDDIE in the second half of 2019 (730 applications, 245 MW), and triple the number the distribution operator processed in the first half of 2019 (520 applications, 165 MW).

Highlighting the scale of the problem faced by DEDDIE, some 7,000 applications arriving from various parts of the the country currently remain pending. Even at its currently faster pace, DEDDIE will require at least two years to get through these applications, joined constantly be new arrivals, many of these concerning energy communities, which are given priority.