New era of cooperation between Britain’s and Europe’s TSOs

ENTSO-E and GB’s NESO have agreed on new working arrangements as a step towards formalising cooperation in the post-Brexit era.

The agreement provides a dedicated cooperation platform to address key shared priorities, including security of electricity infrastructure, expanding clean offshore energy planning such as North Sea Grid planning and enhancing the efficient use of electricity interconnectors between the UK and continental Europe.

Following Brexit, Britain’s TSO ceased to be a member of ENTSO-E and the new arrangements are considered to provide a pragmatic and forward-looking framework to ensure that strong operational ties and technical dialogue continue, according to a statement.

Zbynek Boldis, President of ENTSO-E, commented that the signing of these working arrangements reflects a shared commitment to maintaining a resilient and interconnected European electricity system.

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“This cooperation enables us to respond jointly to the complex challenges of the energy transition, particularly in offshore development, system operations, and interconnector efficiency. We value the strong and constructive partnership with UK TSOs and look forward to deepening our collaboration in the years ahead.”

Fintan Slye, CEO of NESO, added that the new arrangements recognise the importance of collaboration across the various organisations to strengthen energy security and clean power.

“We look forward to working closely with ENTSO-E in future to represent the views of our colleagues across the UK’s electricity networks sector.”

As Great Britain’s electricity system operator, NESO will represent all British transmission network operators at coordination meetings with ENTSO-E.

These new working arrangements follow similar arrangements between the UK's gas TSOs and ENTSOG and between the British regulator Ofgem and ACER.