Regional Energy Strategic Plan: licence modifications and guidance document

What this is about

Ofgem is putting the Regional Energy Strategic Plan onto a statutory footing. The mechanism is licence modification: NESO's Electricity System Operator and Gas System Planner licences gain a new obligation to develop and deliver RESPs, set the methodology, and meet publication deadlines. In parallel, the standard conditions of the Electricity Distribution Licence and Part D of the standard special conditions of the Gas Transporter Licence are modified to compel DNOs and GDNs to participate in and support NESO's RESP work. A companion RESP Guidance document (Part A for NESO, Part B for DNOs and GDNs) sets out the delivery requirements, governance arrangements, and the rules for requesting and sharing information.

This follows Ofgem's earlier RESP policy framework decision; the consultation converts that policy into enforceable licence text. The timing is deliberate: it ran alongside NESO's own RESP Methodology consultation (launched November 2025), so stakeholders could see the obligation framework and the methodology together rather than in sequence. The consultation opened 16 October 2025, closed 28 November 2025, and the decision was published with the licence modifications taking effect in Q1 2026. As of March 2026 the page records the outcome as "Closed (with decision)", with a final notice to modify standard and special standard conditions issued. The substance is institutional: regional energy planning stops being a NESO work programme and becomes a duty Ofgem can enforce against a licence.

Options on the table

The consultation does not present a menu of alternative designs. The policy choice (whether to have a RESP, who should deliver it, what it should cover) was settled in the prior framework decision. What was consulted on here is the legal instrument that implements that choice, so the "options" are really design points within a single chosen approach rather than competing alternatives. Three structural choices are worth drawing out, because they determine who carries the burden.

Obligation placed on NESO via the ESO and GSP licences

The plan is delivered by giving NESO a hard licence duty across both electricity and gas: develop the RESP, publish a methodology, and meet Ofgem-set deadlines for submission and publication. The alternative routes Ofgem could have taken (a non-binding direction, a memorandum of understanding, a statutory instrument) are not on the table; the licence route is chosen because it is enforceable and because NESO already holds the ESO and GSP licences as the natural anchor. NESO wins a clear mandate and the standing to demand cooperation from networks. NESO also carries the delivery risk: missed deadlines or an inadequate methodology become licence compliance failures, not programme slippage.

Participation duty on DNOs and GDNs via standard conditions

Rather than relying on NESO to negotiate cooperation bilaterally, Ofgem modifies the Electricity Distribution Licence standard conditions and Part D of the Gas Transporter standard special conditions to require DNOs and the listed GDNs to participate in and support RESP development. This converts what would otherwise be a transaction-cost problem (NESO chasing voluntary input from networks with their own priorities) into a compliance obligation. The networks lose discretion over how much they engage and on what timetable; they gain a defined, Ofgem-backed process rather than ad hoc requests. Crucially, the duty is to participate and supply information, not to fund or build to the RESP's conclusions. The RESP shapes the evidence base for investment; it does not by itself authorise spend.

Guidance as a separate, two-part document rather than full licence text

Ofgem keeps the licence conditions relatively spare and pushes the operational detail (output requirements, governance, information request and sharing mechanics) into RESP Guidance, split into Part A (NESO) and Part B (DNOs and GDNs). This is a deliberate allocation: the enforceable obligation sits in the licence, the changeable detail sits in guidance that Ofgem can revise without a full licence modification process. The trade-off is flexibility for Ofgem against certainty for the regulated parties, who are bound by a document that can move under them. For anyone modelling future RIIO-ED3 or gas distribution investment cases, the guidance, not just the licence text, is where the live obligations actually live.

Questions being asked

The published page does not reproduce a numbered consultation question set; the source text describes the documents (statutory consultation, Annexes A–F covering the four licence modifications, the guidance, and the notice to modify) but not the discrete questions. Ofgem's stated intent is narrow: feedback to inform the final RESP licence conditions and RESP guidance. The matters genuinely open for response, grouped by theme, are:

Licence drafting

Whether the proposed modifications to the ESO licence (Annex A), the GSP licence (Annex B), the Electricity Distribution Licence standard conditions (Annex C), and Part D of the Gas Transporter standard special conditions (Annex D) correctly and proportionately implement the framework decision. (In practice: does the legal text impose the obligation Ofgem intends, without unintended scope creep onto networks or NESO?)

Guidance content and balance

Whether the RESP Guidance (Annex E), across Part A (NESO) and Part B (DNOs and GDNs), sets the right delivery requirements, governance arrangements, and information request and sharing rules. (The real question: is too much being left to revisable guidance rather than fixed in the licence, and are the information-sharing obligations workable for networks?)

Process and timing

Whether the proposed commencement (licence modifications effective Q1 2026) and the interaction with NESO's parallel RESP Methodology consultation give stakeholders adequate opportunity to align their responses across the two processes.

How to respond

The consultation period ran from 16 October 2025 to 28 November 2025 (the page also cites a closed date of 29 November 2025). This consultation is closed: Ofgem has published its decision, the licence modifications and RESP Guidance in final form, and a final notice to modify standard and special standard conditions. The window to influence the licence text has passed.

The source text does not give a submission email, postal address, or named contact for this consultation. For anyone acting now, the relevant documents are the published Decision (Regional Energy Strategic Plan licence modifications and guidance document), Annexes A–F of the final outcome (the four modified licence instruments, the final RESP Guidance, and the final notice to modify), and the published consultation responses (ZIP, 4.39MB) on the Ofgem page. Forward-looking engagement should now run through NESO's RESP Methodology consultation and the subsequent RESP delivery cycle, which is where the practical content of regional planning, and its eventual feed into TNUoS/DUoS and RIIO-ED3 investment cases, will be contested.