Today (Tuesday 27 January) marks the launch date of the regulatory regime for heat networks in the UK, which is big news for the energy sector.
What you should know so far:
- Unlike other utilities, this sector has been substantially unregulated, until now
- Ofgem is the sector regulator
- The regime catches new, low carbon networks, many of which are under development in urban centres across the UK
- The regime also catches older, established networks that have perhaps been structured on a campus or individual building basis, where heating, hot water and/or cooling is supplied to tenants or other consumers. We anticipate that many organisations that own or operate such networks do not realise that the Regulations may now apply to them.
- Owners and operators need to register their networks as from today, 27 January 2026. Some networks may already have registered in advance. If you have commenced operating a heat network before today, or if you commence the operation of a heat network in the next 12 months, you may have a ‘deemed’ authorisation, but you must register the network with Ofgem before 27 January 2027.
- Owners and operators should also be aware of the general authorisation conditions, (see, in particular, Condition A4)
- Zoning and charging: we await further guidance from Ofgem
See our longer briefing paper, "Feeling the heat: Are you ready for the next phase of heat network regulations?", for more detail, or get in touch with any questions.
Ofgem has published guidance on the heat networks regulations here.
Together, with last week’s announcements about the role that heat networks will play within the Government’s Warm Homes Plan, there is a lot of activity to look out for in the energy sector.
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