Reflecting on Ofgem’s assessment of NESO’s performance

Today Ofgem published its assessment of NESO's performance under Business Plan 3 (BP3), covering April 2025 to March 2026. Its overall conclusion was that NESO met expectations, with seven of our eight performance objectives either delivered or had made sufficient progress to meet expectations. 

The assessment analysed our first full financial year as NESO as we continue our journey of significant change as a new organisation, operating the electricity system today and planning the energy system of tomorrow.  

NESO is making progress 

Ofgem recognised progress across a broad range of areas, which include strengthening energy system resilience, progressing towards the zero-carbon operation of the electricity system, developing strategic whole energy planning capabilities, improving data-sharing infrastructure and supporting electricity market change.  

We are pleased to see recognition of the progress made in strengthening energy system resilience. During BP3, NESO delivered important work to improve industry preparedness and resilience, including our independent review into the North Hyde outage and broader work to support a more secure and resilient energy system.  

The importance of independent assessment 

Independent assessment is critical to how NESO is held to account and it is right that our performance is assessed transparently. We value openness and feedback, so recognising where we have delivered well while identifying where we need to improve is key to our evolution and our delivery of better outcomes for consumers, as well as improving customer experience. It is assessments like these that ensure we continue learning and can strengthen our performance over time.  

Where we are working to make further improvements 

The assessment also identifies areas where more progress is needed. Ofgem highlighted connections reform as an area where we did not make the progress we hoped. That feedback made for difficult reading. The transformation of the grid connections process has not been easy and we accept that, though it is a shared endeavour across government, Ofgem the networks and NESO, the journey has been harder than it should have been. We also recognise Ofgem’s feedback that we must find a clearer way of demonstrating value for money, particularly at a time where energy costs are high. We have not waited for this feedback to act – we are already taking steps to strengthen performance in both areas. 

Looking ahead 

We see today's assessment as both recognition of the progress made during BP3 and a valuable reference point for where we can improve further. We will continue working closely with Ofgem, Government and industry partners to build on our strengths and address the areas identified for improvement in the assessment. 

I and the NESO executive are grateful to all our staff for getting us to this point. We have an exciting journey ahead as we build on these foundations and further improve our performance. 

As the energy system continues to evolve, our focus remains clear - operating today's system safely and reliably while helping shape a secure, affordable and clean energy system for the future.