This summer, NESO is collecting information to inform its 'transitional RESP', or t-RESP, which is a slightly hurried precursor to the full or 'enduring' RESP process. This is happening to fit into the business planning processes of the distribution network operators, to give them the information they need to plan their investments in ED3, which runs from 2028 to 2033. The RESP teams are gathering data and information from stakeholders (particularly local authorities) to understand what additional strategic investments might be needed in the local electricity networks. But with responses needing to be submitted by the end of July, some local authorities are likely to struggle. Here, Poppy Maltby outlines what exactly NESO is looking for, what help is available and how to go about responding.
Energy networks are the bedrock of the energy transition – critical infrastructure for moving power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed.
To ensure that our energy networks are ready for local decarbonisation initiatives and broader economic development, Regen has argued that Ofgem needs to enable networks to take a strategic ‘ahead of need’ approach to investment in capacity. Currently, there can be long timescales and sometimes prohibitive costs for new EV charging stations, with ambitious businesses finding it hard to get the power they need to expand and challenges for new housing developments.
The new Regional Energy Strategic Planners will have these issues firmly in their sights – and we are pleased to see that local councils are being contacted by the local RESP teams to complete a request for information about their needs in the transitional RESP (or t-RESP) and their key regional priorities and development areas. This information will be used to inform the t-RESPs they are currently developing with proposed areas of strategic investment in energy infrastructure development. (For those local authorities that don’t currently know which RESP they sit in, Regen has just published this handy interactive open data map of energy boundaries.)
Listen in
For a bit more information and considered discussion on this, we've published a podcast held with the NESO team, UK100 and West Midlands Combined Authority as part of our work to support local authorities through the Net Zero Living project. You can listen in below or by clicking here.
RESP teams want to hear about actual projects
This t-RESP RFI is focused very much on ‘things’ – so more projects rather than general trends (which is positive). NESO, which oversees the RESPs, wants to hear about ‘broad-ranging energy needs’ – that could be projects, programmes, initiatives, clusters, etc – that do not have an existing connection agreement but will be looking to join our electricity network before 2040. The other key criteria is that they are regionally significant in some form in terms of energy, environment, society or economy. NESO’s interested in energy needs that are clearly supporting regional priorities.
This information-gathering process is looking to fill the critical information gap we face between how networks are planned longer term – which is broadly looking at pathways or scenarios with some different possible futures to 2050 – and the investment that is planned when networks receive a firm connection agreement. This space between theory and certainty is where the holy grail of strategic investment sits: knowing about specific things that MIGHT happen. The information RESPs are asking for from local areas will start to populate this space – and be the starting point for the ‘in-development’ register that was specified by Ofgem in its RESP policy framework decision in March.
Gridserve's eHGV charging network
So what should be on that list?
NESO has been clear that it should be down to stakeholders to decide on the strategic value of the types of submissions they wish to make. But for those wanting a bit more clarity, as we outlined in a blog a few months ago – new housing and commercial developments could be close to the top, including existing redevelopment or regeneration areas in planning that will be of interest to NESO. As well as buildings, a key part of this will be heat and how that is provided – in particular, heat networks and the potential location of energy centres.
Transport and transport electrification is another important area – commercial vehicle and bus fleets will all require electrification and associated charging infrastructure. In the slightly longer term, there will be marine areas with shore power for commercial, ferries and cruise ships. We know that these will need to be done at some point soonish, and the cost of that electrical connection can make or break business cases for transport decarbonisation (and its associated benefits to the economy and air quality).
Renewable energy opportunities could be there also – large commercial solar rooftops or car parks with solar canopies are a great source of generation for urban areas. Some areas may also have identified other renewable energy opportunities, such as onshore wind or tidal, but might lack sufficient network capacity to allow these to be tapped.
It's useful to note that, as part of the process, NESO also wants to hear from key businesses and sectors. This includes industrial zones and commercial business parks who have plans for the future. These are likely to be other areas where electrification needs to be planned for in advance to minimise the high cost of an incremental process. This is a space where local government and local business need to be working together.
The big challenge will be filling out the form
The issue will be less whether there are projects to include, but to what extent local areas have the information about those projects to fill out the RESP form.
The good news is that regional RESP teams are on hand to help. But it is likely to be quite an involved process for local authorities: for each strategic project there are dozens of questions, including on strategic value, finance, planning and maturity of plans. All these questions are to allow NESO to effectively assess the level of certainty.
In particular, there will be a process about whether these are immediate projects to include in the next DNO business plans, or whether these sit in an ‘in development’ pot and will be considered in the future.
All is not lost
Some local areas are going to be well prepared and able to complete this – but it is clear that others are not.
Though we would emphasise that this is an important process, it should be noted that there will be other opportunities to feed into this t-RESP through the consultation on the draft expected in September, as well as future iterations of the enduring RESP itself. The local information-gathering process itself will also be repeated annually.
Another good-to-know is that your friendly local Distribution Network Operators are also completing these forms and they’ve been doing a lot of this thinking already on behalf of local areas through their annual Distribution Future Energy Scenarios process. You may want to get in touch with your DNO to find out what has already been submitted from their side. So all is not lost if that information isn’t at hand to submit on the quite tight timescales over this summer – some will already be coming in via DNOs.
