UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Tom Sprange KC, Andrea Stauber, Martina Antosova and Lucy Pearson, King & Spalding International LLP
UK REMIT (the retained EU law version of the Regula- tion on wholesale energy market integrity and trans- parency (Regulation 1227/2011)). Citizens Advice is an independent watchdog that operates across the whole of the economy. Its core role in the energy sector is to secure a fair deal for energy customers. It is a registered charity. Elexon is a non-profit-making entity responsible for managing the balancing mechanism and the imbal- ance price process. The British Energy Security Strategy (published by BEIS in April 2022) stated that the UK government would appoint an Electricity Networks Commissioner to advise it on policies and regulatory changes in order to accelerate progress on network infrastructure. On 6 July 2022, Nick Winser was appointed as the UK’s first Electricity Networks Commissioner and remains in the role as of May 2026. Between July 2022 and July 2023, the Electricity Networks Commissioner engaged with stakeholders across the electricity transmission network and published an independent report setting out his recommendations to halve the total development time for transmission infrastructure. In December 2024, as a “first step to repair Great Britain’s retail energy market”, the government announced a call for evidence on the role of Ofgem. It sought views on Ofgem’s remit, standards and the tools it is equipped with. In October 2025, the govern- ment stated that the review is nearly complete and recommendations on streamlining Ofgem’s duties are imminent. 1.6 Recent Changes in Law or Regulation The Great British Energy Act 2025 (see 1.1 Law Gov- erning the Structure and Ownership of the Power Industry ) has been described as landmark legislation, introducing Britain’s new publicly owned energy com- pany, Great British Energy. In September 2025, the government confirmed three key areas of focus for Great British Energy: • investment in and development of nascent and more established technologies and assets required for Clean Power 2030 and beyond;
• activity in domestic supply chains to build long- term domestic resilience and economic growth; and • supporting the growth of local and community energy (including by delivering a Local Power Plan). In February 2026, Great British Energy and the UK community energy representative bodies published the Local Power Plan, with the vision that by 2030 every community in the UK will have the opportunity to own a local energy project. To that end, Great Brit- ish Energy will provide a GBP1 billion investment to communities through grants, loans, advice, expert help, and more. The Local Power Plan is supported by DESNZ, which committed to introduce regulatory changes in 2026-2027 to make it easier for communi- ties to own a stake in projects and to get fairer access to energy markets. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 received royal assent after passing through Parliament and came into force on 18 December 2025. Particularly relevant to the energy sector are the provisions that replace the “first come, first served” grid connection process with a “first ready, first connected” system, while NESO and Ofgem reform their own procedures, to prioritise the right clean power energy projects for quicker connections to the grid. The Act also extends the period for commissioning of offshore wind pro- jects and transmission assets that connect them to the onshore grid, recognising that these projects have become larger and more complex. Another major development in recent years was the Energy Act 2023, which has provisions concerning energy production and security and the regulation of the energy market, including on: • the licensing of carbon dioxide transport and stor- age (Part 1); • commercial arrangements for industrial carbon capture and storage and for hydrogen production (Part 2); • new technology, including low-carbon heat schemes and hydrogen grid trials (Part 4); • the independent system operator and planner (Part 5) (ie, the FSO, which became NESO – see 1.5 Central Planning Authorities );
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