The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has opened a public consultation on plans to redevelop the UK’s energy network.
The Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) will bring together electricity, gas and hydrogen transmission network planning, and will look beyond 2030 to provide a 25-year roadmap for transmission redevelopment. The plan will be reviewed and adjusted if necessary every three years.
Energy ministers from the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments commissioned NESO to develop the CSNP alongside the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSNP) in October 2024, and NESO published the high-level design principles for the CSNP methodology in December last year. NESO has stated that these, alongside the Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs), will interact with wider public polices and frameworks in order to deliver reform to the wider UK electricity grid.
The aims of the CSNP are to ensure efficient energy network development by holistically planning onshore, offshore gas and hydrogen networks; planning strategically and ahead of need to enable investment in clean, reliable and affordable energy; accelerating network delivery by providing strategic data to support planning and regulatory processes; and conducting a consistent, robust and transparent assessment on a broad range of network options considering multiple assessment criteria.
The CSNP will assess a range of future network requirements, including the necessary upgrades needed to connect more solar energy and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the grid. The analysis will uncover how weather, supply, demand and market conditions will impact network needs throughout the year, as well as the need to provide additional services to ensure the stability of the grid.
The plan will explore several options to expand the future capability of energy networks, assessing if it is most appropriate to manage energy flows through existing network resources, upgrade network capability by replacing existing components on the current network, or developing new network infrastructure; all of these will be assessed on a case-by-case basis for individual locations.
The consultation on these plans closes on 1 August 2025. Detailed data on system requirements is expected to be published by 30 June 2026, with the draft CSNP set to be published on 1 June 2027. Following a consultation on this draft in the second quarter of 2027, the first full CSNP will be published by 31 December 2027.
Julian Leslie, director of strategic energy planning at NESO, encourages as many people as possible to contribute to the consultation process, adding that taking a “coordinated approach to infrastructure planning is vital – not only to help drive investment decisions, but also to ensure everyone has access to reliable, clean and affordable energy”.
