The Energy Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make amendments to primary, secondary and assimilated legislation in consequence of, or in connection with, the coming into force of certain provisions of the Energy Act 2023 (c. 52) (“the Act”).

Part 5 of the Act makes provision for the designation and functioning of a new body: the Independent System Operator and Planner (ISOP) which will take over the role of the current electricity system operator and take on the role of a gas system planner.

Part 6 of the Act introduces a new governance framework for gas and electricity codes, including the role of the Code Manager. Under that new framework, code administrators and industry panels will be replaced by code managers who will be selected and licensed by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA).

The functions of bodies currently dealing with matters being taken over by the ISOP and by new code managers are set out across the statute book as it relates to energy and more widely. In particular the licensing provisions of the Electricity Act 1989 (c. 29) (“the 1989 Act”) and the Gas Act 1986 (c. 44) (“the 1986 Act”) have been amended to create new categories of licence which need to be reflected in a number of related pieces of legislation.

In addition, section 203 of and Schedule 15 to the Act make a number of amendments to the 1989 Act to add provisions concerning the competitive tendering for electricity projects, and a number of amendments are made to secondary legislation as a result of the coming into force of those new provisions.

Part 8 of the Act also makes provision for the regulation of heat networks and the creation of heat network zones and some amendments are made as a result of regulations being made under that Part.

Regulations 2 and 3 make amendments to the 1986 Act and the 1989 Act principally to reflect the creation of new licensable activities to be carried out by the ISOP, in its role as electricity system operator and gas system planner, or the Code Managers.

Regulation 4 makes a minor amendment to the Gas (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (S.I. 1996/275 N.I. 2) for the purposes of adding a reference to the modification power in section 89 of the Act to Article 11 of that Order.

Regulations 5 to 9 make similar consequential amendments to a number of other pieces of primary energy legislation in particular the Utilities Act 2000 (c. 27) and the Energy Acts 2004 (c. 20), 2008 (c. 32), 2010 (c. 27) and 2013 (c. 32). Amendments are also made to the Utilities Act 2000 as a consequence of Chapter 1 of Part 8 of the Act (regulation of heat networks).

Regulations 10 to 22 make consequential amendments to a number of other pieces or primary legislation to insert references to the ISOP or Code Manager functions or licences.

Regulations 23 to 38 make amendments to a number of pieces of domestic secondary legislation primarily to add in references to the electricity system operator licence or the gas system planner licence or to replace references to existing licences where that is appropriate.

Regulations 39 to 48 make amendments to assimilated law which relates to the electricity transmission system and to gas networks again primarily to add in references to the electricity system operator and (where relevant) gas system planner licences.

An impact assessment was prepared for the Energy Bill 2023 in relation to all the matters to which the consequential amendments in this instrument relate and copies can be obtained from the UK Parliament website at https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3311/publications or from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero at 3-8 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2EG.