Draft Centralised Strategic Network Plan Guidance

Details of outcome 

The Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) will be an independent, coordinated, and long-term whole-system approach to planning the electricity and natural gas transmission networks as well as hydrogen transport and storage networks across Great Britain to help meet the government’s net zero ambitions.  

In August 2025, we consulted on our draft CSNP guidance, which sets out our expectations and requirements for the CSNP and the CSNP Methodology that the National Energy System Operator (NESO) must develop. We received 21 responses to our consultation.  

Where we received suggestions for material changes to the guidance, our decision on those suggestions is discussed in the decision document.  

The decision document should be read in conjunction with our Centralised Strategic Network Plan guidance. 

Read the full outcome 

Original consultation

We are seeking views on our draft Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) Guidance, which sets out our expectations and requirements for the CSNP Methodology and the CSNP that the National Energy System Operator (NESO) must prepare. 

We previously set out our expectations from NESO for the first CSNP Methodology in our 2023 CSNP policy decision (see related links). Since then, NESO has developed the CSNP Methodology by working closely with network owners, Government and Ofgem, and by consulting wider stakeholders. 

As this is a new process, we’ve chosen to wait for NESO to develop its approach based on our policy decision before publishing a guidance document, so it can explore potential approaches, without being overly limited by pre-set requirements. 

This guidance is largely aligned with our previous policy decision. Where we take a different view, we provide clear reasons and seek views from stakeholders through this consultation.

Who should respond

This is an open, public consultation and we welcome responses from stakeholders, including but not limited to: NESO, network owners, licence holders, generators, manufacturers, wider industry, community and environmental groups and trade bodies and consumers.