Strategic Spatial Energy Planning (SSEP)

The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will help accelerate and optimise the transition to clean, affordable and secure energy across Great Britain by providing greater clarity to industry, investors, consumers and the public on the shape of our future reformed energy system.

It will achieve this by assessing the optimal locations, quantities and types of energy infrastructure required to meet our future energy demand, helping enable the clean, affordable and secure supply we need. This outcome will be delivered through economic, environmental and technical engineering design input, alongside considerable societal,  political and wider stakeholder engagement.

The first SSEP will be a GB-wide plan that will map potential locations, quantities and types of electricity and hydrogen generation and storage infrastructure over time. This will be modelled across a range of plausible futures, taking into account public views, environmental considerations and cross-sectoral demands on land and sea. Future iterations could also include other energy vectors.

The SSEP will not focus on specific projects, leaving the energy market or subsequent processes to determine the specific projects and their respective locations. The SSEP complements, and feeds into, the wider range of essential energy transition programmes. This includes the Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP) and Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESP).

You can find more information on the SSEP in the commission we received from UK, Scottish and Welsh governments. This is available on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s website.

 As set out in the commission, one of our first significant public-facing milestones is delivering the SSEP Draft Methodology, which will provide further detail on how we intend to deliver the SSEP. As we develop the methodology, we will continue to engage with a representative cross-section of our customers, utilising their views and expertise to inform our detailed approach.