Grid strength, graded and monitored: 38 markets BETA

What the Monitor watches

Point it at the markets where you hold exposure. When one of these moves, you hear about it.

The 38 markets under full monitoring

Reliability, connection and cost are all compiled and monitored for these 38. The other 41 markets are siting screens only, not monitored.

◆ Your Analyst Desk access shows the reliability, cost-certainty and regulatory reads for every market above.

How the grade is built

The grade weighs factors PowerGridIQ already publishes and cites: the PGIQ rating and its track record, delivery reliability, forward firm supply, cost certainty, regulatory direction and steadiness, the risk a project connects late, and demand and investment momentum (growth prospects across the value chain). Each factor adds or subtracts strength points, so strong performance lifts the grade and weakness lowers it; the total sets the band. A steady, predictable regulatory regime scores as a strength, since it lowers the stroke-of-pen risk a lender carries over the life of a deal. The top grade rewards a strong grid, with steady rules, that is also growing, where capital can be deployed, not a placid one.

Two rules keep it honest. A factor we have not assessed is treated as unknown, never as strength. And a market we cannot yet assess on reliability, or on more than one factor, cannot be graded Strong, or Strong or Sound. So a market can sit low because we found weakness, or because we do not yet have the evidence to grade it higher. The market page says which: each factor reads either a finding or not assessed, and a grade held down by thin data is labelled as such.

This is a directional screen on grid, cost and policy risk, in beta while we deepen coverage market by market. It is not a credit rating, and not investment, engineering or procurement advice.