The publication of the transitional Regional Energy Strategic Plan (tRESP) was described by Julian Leslie, director of strategic energy planning and chief engineer at NESO, as “a key moment in the delivery of strategic energy planning”.
February 2, 2026
The UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) has published a transitional Regional Energy Strategic Plan for distribution network operators (DNOs) to use in their business plans for 2028-33.
The publication of the transitional Regional Energy Strategic Plan (tRESP) was described by Julian Leslie, director of strategic energy planning and chief engineer at NESO, as “a key moment in the delivery of strategic energy planning”.
NESO said it engaged with 2,800 local stakeholders over three rounds of RESP Forums since March 2025, with submissions provided to help NESO understand strategically important energy needs in each region of Great Britain.
The tRESP, as the name suggests, is intended to ease the transition from the current way that energy distribution networks plan their investment, to the new full RESP approach, first proposed by Ofgem in 2024.
Previously, energy infrastructure companies, distribution network operators (DNOs) and gas networks made investment plans on a five-year cycle. This worked in a relatively steady system, but the acceleration to net zero spurred on by the government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan (CP30) means regions and localities are making big changes at speed.
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NESO will develop these plans every three years, updating local data annually, to be signed off by an RESP board for each area. The regions are broken down along the same groupings as the relevant area for all six UK DNOs: Electricity North West, Northern Powergrid, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), SP Energy Networks, UK Power Networks, and National Grid Electricity Distribution (formerly Western Power Distribution).
The RESPs will form one part of the future planning being overseen by NESO, coming alongside the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan and Centralised Strategic Network Plan. The aspiration is that the RESP will be bottom-up, representing the wants and needs of localities within wider future planning.
Last year, Solar Power Portal spoke with Poppy Maltby, associate director of non-profit energy transition technology and markets consultancy Regen, about regional energy planning. That piece goes into more detail on RESPs and their impact on planning and investment.
Maltby explained that, moving forward, “when private companies come up with a five-year business plan to say how much investment is needed, they're going to have to refer to the RESP plan and go, yes, it is consistent with this broader ambition of the region that is being built up by local democratic actors”.
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Molly Green
Senior Reporter, Informa
Molly joined the team in 2024 and has led coverage on the UK sites. Now shifting to a more global view, Molly is interested in how legislation shapes market dynamics, covering the intersection of policy design, investment patterns, and energy transition pathways.
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