The Government’s ambition for Clean Power by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050 is transforming the physical infrastructure required to deliver its vision of a sustainable, secure and affordable electricity system.

While efforts to reform the connections queue and the planning system are ongoing, with demand for electricity set to rapidly accelerate, there is significant further work to be done to create the conditions to bring this vision to life.

There is moreover a developing requirement for project promoters and investors to engage with the plan making system for energy and high energy demand projects, and to be cognisant of the available options to consent generation and demand projects in the most opportune way.

This briefing gives insight on:

• recent strides forward in strategic energy planning the latest on connections reform, and what this means for those promoting energy generation and high-energy demand projects; and
• the evolution of projects with co-located infrastructure, and increased consenting flexibility.

The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan

A spatial blueprint

The concept of a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) for Great Britain formally surfaced in August 2023 as part of an independent report looking at how to accelerate the deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure. Recognising the need for clarity and certainty in delivering a clean energy transition, this concept was translated into action in October 2024 by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), who commissioned the newly launched National Energy System Operator (NESO) to create a Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) in respect of Great Britain’s energy system.

The SSEP is intended to be a ‘spatial blueprint’ used to help plan and balance the energy system. It will provide a long-term view of what electricity and hydrogen generation and storage is needed and the best locations for this infrastructure on a zonal basis. The SSEP will therefore play a significant guiding role for promoters of, and investors in, future energy projects and decision-makers responsible for this infrastructure.

Progress so far and next steps

The development of the SSEP is well underway. NESO published its SSEP methodology in May 2025 and has been subsequently developing, through a combination of economic modelling and spatial evaluation, a set of ‘pathway options’ for the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to choose from. These options will be alternative modelled futures for how Great Britain’s energy system could be structured and evolve over time.

NESO is developing key spatial indicators of exclusions, constraints and opportunities. Broadly, the spatial evaluation is intended to address: environmental factors; societal impacts; other competing spatial uses; and engineering design requirements for particular types of infrastructure. As it stands, the SSEP will include 19 onshore and 19 marine zones.

The pathway options being developed by NESO are due to be submitted to the Energy Secretary this summer. The Energy Secretary will then decide on the pathway to be used for a wider public consultation on the draft SSEP. At the time of writing, the SSEP is intended to be consulted upon in early 2027 and a first published in Autumn 2027.

Once published, the SSEP will have far-reaching influence, including on the planning system, pricing and financial support, grid connection queue management and charges, the future Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) and the future Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs), more on which can be found below.

Impacts of and signals from the SSEP

Centralised Strategic Network Plan and Regional Energy Strategic Plans

The outputs from the SSEP will interact with the CSNP and RESPs that NESO is also responsible for. Both the CSNP and RESPs will be relevant to understanding where infrastructure and demand are likely to be deliverable, funded and prioritised on the grid.

The CSNP will be a 25-year plan that focuses on how electricity and gas transmission networks, and the hydrogen system, may need to develop over time. It will set the location and timing for the required infrastructure. The methodology for the CSNP was approved by Ofgem in April 2026. NESO have recently been directed by Ofgem to publish by the first CSNP by 15 December 2028, to align with the prior SSEP deadlines.

RESPs are intended to focus on localised distribution level planning and to align with the SSEP. RESPs are planned to be updated on a 3- year cycle, with underpinning data refreshed annually. With a consultation carried out in January 2026 and a further feedback window in March 2026, the final RESP methodology is expected to be published this summer. It is proposed that RESPs will comprise of five components: (1) local conditions and priorities, (2) projections of supply and demand (3) peak demand forecasting (4) projections compared to capacity data and (5) specification of strategic investment need. The first RESPs are again intended to be published by the end of 2028.

National, regional and local planning policy

The Overarching National Policy Statement for energy (EN-1), which came into force at the beginning of the year, makes clear that the SSEP and the CSNP should be considered by applicants and used to inform developments of new energy infrastructure projects, and will also be required to be considered by the Secretary of State for the purposes of decision taking on energy projects. The NPS also recognises the need for the infrastructure proposed in the forthcoming CSNP as established. Alignment of projects with the SSEP and the CSNP will therefore be important, to ensure a robust basis for projects to be approved, and to avoid objections where projects are not aligned.

As we have explored previously, renewable and low carbon energy development and electricity network infrastructure are also being firmly placed into the sights of local planners, with significant planning policy changes proposed when (if?) the December 2025 draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) come into force.

Among other things, when in force, the development plan will need to be informed by early engagement with utility providers, regulators and network operators, which should take into account ‘infrastructure plans’ including, once published, the SSEP, the CSNP and the relevant RESP.

Furthermore, the recent Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (PIA 2025) contains provisions (not yet in effect but an update is expected imminently) that could place a duty on each new strategic authority to prepare a spatial development strategy (SDS). Government announcements posit that SDSs are intended to be high-level spatial frameworks for housing growth and infrastructure investment, which shall include setting out the type, extent and broad location of strategic infrastructure needed to enable development and serve existing communities, including transport, social and waste infrastructure, utilities provision, flood risk management schemes and, where considered appropriate, the provision of minerals.

Whichever way you look at it, locational planning for renewable and low carbon energy development and electricity network infrastructure is shifting into the development plan, and this will have significant implications for those persons looking to deliver and invest in those projects.

Siting and investment levers

In April 2026, DESNZ published its Reformed National Pricing (RNP) Delivery Plan, which includes a consultation on reforms to siting and investment levers that closed on 2 June 2026. A stated aim of the RNP is to “reform and align the siting and investment levers across generation, network and storage in a coordinated way, so that together these levers deliver the SSEP with maximum confidence and at the lowest cost.”

In other words, what can be done by the Government to encourage developers and investors to develop their projects in preferable locations.

DESNZ considers that these levers fall into two groups: enabling and primary.

• ‘Enabling’ levers include planning, seabed leasing and network build. Among other things, the Government sets out that it will continue to explore opportunities for formalising the status of the SSEP in the planning regime (the beginning of which we can see above).
• ‘Primary’ levers include the connections regime, locational charges, investment support schemes and additional locational elements. The consultation sets out a number of options for using these primary levers, largely turning on the roles of the connections regime and locational charges.

The Government is said to be aiming to take final decisions on the combinations of these levers later in 2026.

Demand Connections Reform Update

In parallel to the above, on 16 June 2026, Ofgem published its initial response to the feedback it received call for input on demand connections reform (previously discussed here).

Whilst the response addresses the various strands of the proposals to ‘Curate, Plan and Connect’, those of most interest to this briefing relate to the ‘Connect’ pillar.

In respect of its ‘Connect’ pillar, Ofgem published ‘Connect Update: Demand Connections Reform’ and divides its workstreams in this pillar broadly into two:

• Connect Accelerate, which is focussed on reforms to permit the self-build and ownership, or transfer, of high voltage assets, and which represents a significant change in the face of serious grid infrastructure and delivery constraints; and
• Connect Operate, which is focussed on contracting arrangements to allow for increased capacity of demand to connect, together with understanding impacts on the grid and the availability of flexible operation of certain projects.

Further policy consultations in respect of Ofgem’s ‘Connect’ proposals are expected in Autumn 2026 in advance of this year’s connections window.

Power availability and co-located infrastructure

And so, whilst we await and plan for the strategic energy system of the future, the present-day constraints of the UK’s electricity grid system remain only too well known and are frequently cited as one of the biggest obstacles for the Government’s growth mission.

Co-location of demand projects, such as data centres, and energy generation and BESS is consequently gaining momentum to navigate the short to medium term issues associated with the capacity constraints of the network: for construction and bridging power and to provide resilience for operation in the longer term. Government measures aimed at streamlining the consenting process for projects co-located in this way are now materialising.

Directions into the NSIP regime

Data centres were added in January 2026 to the list of qualifying business or commercial projects for which a development consent order (DCO) may be obtained, subject to the issuing of a Section 35 Direction confirming the project is of national significance. The Secretary of State issued its first Section 35 Direction in March 2026 directing a data centre and co-located gas generation energy centre in Buckinghamshire to follow this route. One of the reasons specified for considering this development of national significance included that it relates to “a proposed energy centre project for which development consent is required and would benefit from being considered as a single application”.

Similarly, on 15 June 2026, the Secretary of State issued its second Section 35 Direction directing that a proposed data centre campus in Bedfordshire is a development for which a DCO is required. Again, a reason for considering the development nationally significant included the benefit of considering the co-located gas generation as a single application. Illustrating the consequences of the extended timeframes for connecting to the grid, the documents supporting this latest application set out that the applicant “has signed an agreement for connection to the national grid in 2034”. An integrated on-site gas generating station, subject to the NSIP regime, will therefore be required in the meantime.

The third such Section 35 Direction for an AI data centre campus with a total power load of 300MW and IT load of 240MW in Ebbsfleet was issued on 1 July 2026, but this time without co-located power, but proposed to connect directly to the 400kV network.

Directions out of the NSIP regime

On the other side of the coin, the provisions in the PIA 2025 that enable the Secretary of State to direct certain projects in England (and certain adjacent waters and Renewable Energy Zones) out of the NSIP regime have now been confirmed as coming into effect on 24 July 2026.

From this date, the Secretary of State will be able to direct, under a new section 35B of the Planning Act 2008, that development consent is not required in relation to the particular development if:

• the Secretary of State is satisfied that it is appropriate for an alternative consenting regime to apply;
• no application for a DCO has already been made; and
• either a qualifying written request has been received, the Secretary of State is proposing to carry out the development, or the alternative consenting regime considered appropriate is a special development order.

Applicants (save for authorities who are seeking to use their own powers to make a local development order, mayoral development order or simplified planning zone scheme) will need to provide evidence with their request to the Secretary of State that the decision-maker for the proposed alternative regime is aware of the application.

The Government published new guidance on 3 July 2026 to support applicants seeking to use this ‘direct-out’ power (together with guidance on the above ‘direct-in’ power), which will also take effect on 24 July 2026. This guidance sets out among other things what the Secretary of State will take into consideration, including specific additional factors for energy infrastructure projects.

Concluding remarks

Notwithstanding new calls for ‘stronger public control’ of energy, the policy landscape is already crystallising around a more coordinated, interventionist and spatially-led model for delivering energy infrastructure and managing demand. Promoters and investors will need to continue to actively consider where current and future projects fit within these emerging frameworks, and a new imperative to advocate for projects through the strategic and local plan preparation processes is emerging.

In the immediate term, new opportunities to seek directions in and out of the NSIP regime should give pause for thought for projects dependent on new energy infrastructure. It would be prudent to revisit consenting strategies and sources of power to understand if there are viable opportunities that could condense timetables or improve scheme deliverability.

Energy or energy dependent projects across the spectrum should also be engaging with Ofgem’s new Connect Accelerate workstream, to understand how those reforms and stakeholder relationships can provide a clearer and quicker pathway to long-term grid connected energy supply.

Looking further ahead, schemes will need to be stress tested against the outputs of the SSEP and the CSNP. And as wider policy develops, early engagement with the production of RESPs and potentially SDSs will be well advised.

The co-ordination of the SSEP, CSNP and RESP framework with the development plan will require very careful consideration and engagement, particularly as those plans are required to be refreshed asynchronously, to avoid creating confusion and undermining consenting, delivery and investor confidence.

If you have a proposal which may be impacted by the proposed reforms discussed in this briefing and would like more information on them and their impact, including how to plan for your project to benefit from the policy and process changes in due course, please do get in touch.