What does Cairnel monitor?

Cairnel monitors four event categories for named UK grid infrastructure projects: connection queue movements, substation and network capacity status, company events, and scoped planning evidence. Major infrastructure consenting is monitored separately; local planning-application coverage is currently verified only for Adur, Camden, Doncaster and Worthing LPAs.

What geography does Cairnel cover?

Cairnel covers the GB-wide transmission connection queue and distribution-level connections across covered regions. Coverage expands only when a source has been verified. Not every region is covered yet — Cairnel states coverage gaps honestly.

What triggers a Cairnel alert?

An alert is triggered when Cairnel detects a verified change for a project on a subscriber's watchlist. That includes: a project moving gate stage, a capacity figure changing, a company event such as a director change or ownership transfer, or a planning decision. Every finding is verified before it reaches the subscriber — unverified signals are not sent.

How often does Cairnel check for changes?

Monitor subscribers receive weekly change digests and Adviser subscribers receive daily alert delivery. Source refreshes run on their disclosed schedules: core connection, company, distribution and planning snapshots are currently monthly, while some operational evidence is checked daily. Enterprise monitoring is scoped individually; near-real-time delivery and API access are not currently offered.

What Cairnel Monitors

Event categories

01

Connection queue

Movement in a project's position in the grid connection queue — the core signal for infrastructure investors and lenders.

Gate stage changes (Gate 1 to Gate 2 and beyond)
Connection offer issued or accepted
Queue position shifts
Capacity request changes
Project withdrawal or suspension
Connection date revisions

02

Capacity and constraint

Changes in what the network can accommodate at the substations and connection points relevant to your projects.

Firm capacity availability changes
Constraint status updates
Headroom threshold movements
New connection offers at monitored substations
Network reinforcement decisions

03

Company events

Corporate activity at the entities behind the projects you track — ownership, leadership, and filing status.

Ownership and beneficial control changes
Director appointments and resignations
Charge registrations and satisfactions
Confirmation statement and accounts filing status
Dissolution or striking-off notices
Corporate restructuring events

04

Planning decisions

Major infrastructure consenting plus local planning-application evidence where the relevant authority is covered.

Application submissions
Local planning decisions in Adur, Camden, Doncaster and Worthing
Appeal outcomes
Development Consent Order stage changes
Environmental assessment submissions

Geography

Where Cairnel monitors

Coverage is national across transmission and expanding across distribution. Cairnel states gaps honestly — we do not claim coverage we do not have.

Network layer	Geography	Status
Transmission connection queue	GB-wide (England, Scotland, Wales)	Live
Distribution — London, South East, East of England	London, South East, East of England	Live
Distribution — South Scotland, Merseyside, North Wales	South of Scotland, Merseyside and North Wales	Live
Distribution — North West England	North West England	Live
Distribution — North East England, Yorkshire	North East England, Yorkshire	Live
Distribution — Midlands, South West, South Wales	Midlands, South West, South Wales	Coming
Company events	England and Wales registered entities	Live
Major infrastructure consenting	Nationally significant infrastructure register	Live
Local planning applications	Adur, Camden, Doncaster and Worthing LPAs only; explicit coverage gaps elsewhere	Limited

What triggers an alert

Cairnel does not send raw data. Every finding goes through a verification step before it reaches a subscriber. That means confirmed change events only — not noise, not false positives from data refresh artefacts.

An alert is sent when Cairnel detects a verified change for a project on your watchlist. The alert names the project, states what changed, and gives the date the change was detected. Findings are traceable.

Missing evidence is not adverse evidence. If Cairnel cannot confirm a change, it does not report one. Coverage gaps are stated plainly — we do not impute status from absence of data.

Disclosure

Full coverage disclosure

For private beta subscribers, we publish a more detailed statement of what is monitored, what is not yet monitored, update frequency, and confidence tiers.

Full coverage disclosure →

Known gap — stated plainly

What Cairnel does not currently show

273 GW

Gated generation & storage queue monitored

~99 GW

Transmission-connected demand — not currently shown

The 273 GW figure covers generation and storage projects holding a formal queue position. It does not include transmission-connected demand — large electricity consumers seeking a grid connection, such as data centres, industrial facilities, and hydrogen producers. These projects represent a significant and growing share of the GB transmission connection pipeline.

The gap is structural, not accidental. No public register of named transmission demand connection projects exists in a form equivalent to the generation queue. The figure widely cited for this segment is drawn from a self-reported exercise conducted by the network operator — useful context, but not a project-level list Cairnel can independently verify and monitor.

Cairnel is building an independently evidenced picture of transmission-demand developments — named projects, connection sites, and network investment signals — without relying on incomplete official totals as denominators. We will state what we can evidence, attribute confidence to each record, and expand coverage as evidence becomes available.

Cairnel does not claim completeness on either side of the queue. Where we know the boundary of what we can see, we say so. The absence of a figure is never reported as the absence of activity.

What Cairnel monitors