Wales Energy Strategic Planning Coordinator - ESO

Job Purpose

Great Britain's electricity system is undergoing an ambitious, exciting and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, greener system, one that protects the planet and serves generations to come.

 

It’s not every day that you have an opportunity to be the first to establish an energy team in Wales. We are looking for our first Wales Energy Strategic Planning Coordinator to join the growing team. This role will be home based in Wales until a suitable hub opens and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home.

 

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is taking on the exciting new role of being the Regional Energy Strategic Planner. We will be responsible for developing Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs) for 11 regions across Great Britain, empowered through recent Ofgem decisions and an ongoing consultation.

 

The Wales RESP will need to reflect regional characteristics, driving whole energy considerations across all energy vectors. Think renewables, heat decarbonisation, hydrogen, energy networks, transport and flexibility! And how each region’s needs differ yet come together in forming the Great British energy plan. To achieve this, we need a Scotland based team – to work alongside our other regional and central teams in forming the hub and spokes needed for energy planning to benefit from and reflect local inputs.

The purpose of this job is to ensure engagement with local actors and other regional and central NESO teams is coordinated. This is the first time we will have a regional presence. Alongside your regional manager, you will be amongst the first to establish and coordinate energy planning work within your region. Regional teams will continue growing in 2025.

 

Having an understanding and lived experience of Wales will be key.

 

Our focus in the immediate term is to build trust with our stakeholders, establish our process and methodology, and grow our capability in whole energy systems to best support local actors and industry stakeholders in developing credible plans to support net zero.

About us

As Great Britain’s electricity system operator (ESO), we sit at the heart of the electricity system, using our outstanding engineering and commercial expertise to balance electricity supply and demand. Ultimately, we keep the electricity flowing directly to where it’s needed, second by second.

 

Becoming the National Energy System Operator

In Summer of 2024, the ESO will transition to becoming the National Energy System Operator, or NESO for short. Previously denoted as the Future System Operator (or FSO), the new National Energy System Operator will be the independent body responsible for planning Great Britain’s electricity and gas networks and operating the electricity system.

 

The ESO, including all of its existing roles, will be at the heart of the new National Energy System Operator. As NESO, we will build on our existing roles, capabilities, and ways of working significantly to create an organisation the energy system and its users’ need. Our new capabilities will enable us to look across vectors, including electricity, natural gas and hydrogen, and crucially consider the trade-offs between them.

 

The organisation will be set up as a public corporation with its own Board of independent directors, with complete operational independence from government, the regulator and any and all commercial interest. As the ESO are today, NESO will be licenced and regulated by Ofgem through price control agreements and obligated to identify optimal solutions to system operations and planning in the most sustainable, affordable and secure way for all.