The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem has today published final plans allowing the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to draw up regional plans for the future of the UK energy network.
Ten-year Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs) will be implemented across Scotland, Wales, and nine regions in England by the end of 2027. These plans will set out what needs to happen in each area to deliver net zero by 2050 in the most cost-effective way possible.
This will be achieved by each RESP mapping out the building infrastructure needed in each area to decarbonise heating and transport, including strengthening the grid to support increased demand for EV charging, while also ensuring that industrial clusters are supported in their decarbonisation efforts. The plans will also assess the varied needs of different British regions in response to extreme weather in order to ensure continued security of electricity supply.
According to the final RESP plans published today, NESO will create each RESP with five different components. These will be a layout of the regional context of the area, a set of spatially modelled pathways of future supply and demand, a detailed outline of the spatial context of the pathways showing supply and demand against network capacity information, a specification of strategic investment need, and a set of common planning assumptions which will ensure consistency in the planning of the networks. The RESPs will coordinate local, regional and local energy planning, with each RESP being overseen by a strategic board comprised of members of regional and local government.
In order to ensure a smooth transition, transitional regional energy plans will be put in place from 2026, ahead of the first full RESPs which will be delivered in late 2027. According to expectations laid out by Ofgem in February, phase one scoping work on the transitional plans is expected to be delivered by the end of Q1 this year, ahead of public consultations on drafts of the RESPs in September this year and final transitional RESP outputs in January 2026.
The documents published today note that the need for strategic regional planning has been further emphasised since consultations on the RESP programme were published last year. This is due to research published in February by the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which revealed that the current rate of investment in energy distribution networks must more than double by 2050 to meet rising demand for renewable energy.
Akshay Kaul, director general of infrastructure at Ofgem, noted that the British energy system is going through “unprecedented change”, of which the RESPs are a “vital part”. Kaul added that the new system “will end the disconnect across regional economies that has held back ambitions; target and unlock investment; fast-track building; create jobs and drive new low-carbon technology.”
