Monday, 6 July 2026

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Ofgem will adopt most of the code manager licence proposals put forward in their consultation, according to a government response published on 23 March 2026.

The changes rework how modifications to gas and electricity industry codes get challenged. Going forward, the code manager's recommendation replaces the code panel's code modification recommendation and becomes the new basis of the appeals trigger.

On appeals to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government and Ofgem plan to keep the existing scope while pulling the Retail Energy Code (REC) into it. After publication, secondary legislation will follow to reflect the updated CMA appeals process.

The consultation drew 31 responses from a wide range of interested parties. It opened at 10:30am on 1 May 2025 and closed at 11:59pm on 27 June 2025.

The response settles two questions at once: the licence conditions that will govern code managers, and the route through which licensed parties can take a code modification dispute to the CMA. Bringing the REC under CMA appeals lines it up with codes already covered.

In practice, the appeals trigger no longer sits with the code panel. It moves to the code manager's recommendation, which makes the code manager the body whose decision starts the appeals clock.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Ofgem opened a consultation on March 27, 2026 on tightening cyber regulation for the downstream gas and electricity sector. The consultation ran from March 27 to May 22, 2026, and applies to England, Scotland and Wales.

The proposals would set minimum cyber requirements that every Ofgem licensee must meet. Under the same package, DESNZ and Ofgem are examining whether to widen the Network and Information System Regulations 2018 by revising the thresholds and the list of essential services that trigger designation across the downstream gas and electricity sectors.

Ofgem and DESNZ pointed to two drivers behind the review: the shift toward Clean Power 2030 and a rising cyber security threat.

The Network and Information System Regulations 2018 currently decide which downstream gas and electricity operators count as essential services and fall under cyber oversight. A revised threshold would change how many of those operators are captured, and extending baseline duties to every Ofgem licensee would pull smaller operators into the perimeter alongside the largest ones.

Clean Power 2030 is pushing the electricity system toward more distributed and digitally coordinated resources, which enlarges the set of connected systems regulators have to watch. That expansion is the gap the review is testing.

Respondents were asked to comment on the proposed minimum cyber duties for licensees and on the possible widening of the Network and Information System Regulations 2018 before the May 22, 2026 deadline.

Too many battery storage projects have cleared a key stage of the reformed grid connection queue, and UK officials are now asking industry whether to intervene. Energy Minister Michael Shanks and Ofgem infrastructure chief Akshay Kaul set out the concern in an open letter dated April 16, 2026.

DESNZ and Ofgem issued the joint update on connections reform delivery and on how much battery capacity sits in the reformed queue.

Shanks and Kaul flag a high volume of battery storage projects moving through to Gate 2, more than the capacity ranges laid out in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan.

The two officials ask whether further measures should be taken to address that surplus, and point industry to the National Energy System Operator's (NESO) annual consultation on its connections methodologies as the channel for responses.

Gate 2, the point where projects lock in firm connection terms, is where the excess has surfaced against the plan's targets. Views submitted through the NESO process will shape whether the queue rules are adjusted.

Bechtel crews have moved onto the Natrium Kemmerer Unit 1 site in Wyoming and started field work, with the firm serving as TerraPower's engineering, procurement, and construction partner.

Natrium became the first utility-scale advanced reactor in the United States to win a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The design pairs a 345-megawatt electric sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten-salt energy storage, a setup that can push output as high as 500 MW for short periods. TerraPower is targeting completion by 2030, with cost estimates running up to USD 4 billion.

The reactor holds steady at its rated capacity and taps the molten-salt store to dispatch extra power when demand spikes.

TerraPower is building next to PacifiCorp's Naughton power station outside Kemmerer, a western Wyoming coal town where units are being retired or converted. Siting the plant there keeps grid connections and the local coal workforce close at hand.

The schedule has slipped before. TerraPower announced a delay in late 2022, pointing to thin commercial high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) manufacturing capacity and the loss of Russian supply. HALEU is the fuel Natrium and several other advanced reactor designs in the United States depend on.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the operating license for Duke Energy's Robinson Nuclear Plant for an additional 20 years, extending operations until 2050.

The single-unit plant in Hartsville, South Carolina, runs one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor rated at 759 MW. Robinson supplies enough electricity to power 570,000 homes.

The NRC granted Robinson's original 40-year operating license in 1970. The renewal carries the reactor past that first term into a further two decades of service through 2050.

Duke Energy said it intends to seek subsequent license renewal for all 11 operating reactors in its fleet. That fleet supplies about 51% of customers' energy needs in the Carolinas.

The Department of Energy has redirected a large share of a $1 billion Energy Resilience Fund meant for low-income Puerto Rican solar installations toward the island's utility, with $50 million earmarked for a new natural gas pipeline, according to Grist.

Congress approved the fund in 2022 after hurricane damage to the island's grid, Grist reported. The Biden administration's Department of Energy had developed a plan to distribute the money to about 40,000 low-income Puerto Ricans for solar and battery systems, many of whom live with health conditions requiring reliable power, according to Grist.

Under the redirected plan, the funds are now poised to support the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) fleet of power plants, which largely run on fossil fuels, Grist reported.

Grist reported that the DOE accepted a 1 percent cost share from PREPA, citing the utility's significant financial stress, rather than the 50 percent cost share the agency typically requires for large organizations. PREPA has nearly $4 billion in annual revenue, according to Grist.

A spokesperson with the Office of Electricity at the DOE said the agency carefully evaluated procurement options and determined that a noncompetitive, sole-source award to PREPA was justified, according to Grist.

The average resident on the island experienced more than 70 hours of outages in 2024, Grist reported. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Congress allocated more than $17 billion to modernize the grid, according to Grist.

The UK government announced proposals on 17 June 2026 to create a new consumer protection service to oversee the retrofit industry, according to the government press release.

Reforms to the Energy Ombudsman will cut overall waiting times by a month, to a maximum of 10 weeks, the government said. Customers will be able to escalate complaints within a shorter time frame and receive a decision more quickly.

The government said it has remediated more than 60% of the issues identified through audits of poor-quality solid wall insulation installed under ECO4 and GBIS. It has set up an on-site audit programme offering audits at no cost to the consumer.

Homeowners in properties heated by oil and LPG are being offered £9,000 off the cost of a heat pump, according to the government.

Minister for Energy Consumers Martin McCluskey said the government inherited a broken system that left people in homes damaged by work that lacked clear oversight, without support when things went wrong.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) opened a consultation on reforming consumer protection for home upgrade schemes on 17 June 2026. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 10 September 2026.

DESNZ cited evidence of failings in Energy Company Obligation 4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme as highlighting weaknesses in the current consumer protection and oversight framework for home upgrades.

The consultation proposes creating a single end-to-end consumer protection service, accountable to government and responsible for system oversight and performance. The proposed reforms also include a publicly accessible register of installers and retrofit professionals approved to work on government schemes.

The Minister for Energy Consumers set out priorities for reforming the consumer protection system in October 2025.

The consultation is relevant to those involved in the installation of solar panels, insulation, batteries, and heat pumps.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published its response to the Fairer, faster redress in the energy market consultation on 17 June 2026, according to the UK government.

The underlying consultation ran between 23 October 2025 and 4 December 2025, covering proposals to strengthen the Energy Ombudsman's powers so that suppliers must comply with its final decisions or pay compensation to the consumer, according to the government.

The consultation drew 42 responses from a variety of stakeholders, according to the government.

One proposal would reduce the window before complaints can be escalated to the Ombudsman from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, with exceptions for complex cases, according to the government. The same measure would cut the time the Ombudsman has to consider complaints to 4 weeks.

The proposals would also give the Ombudsman an explicit power to require suppliers to compensate consumers where a ruling has not been implemented on time, according to the government.

The consultation applies to England, Scotland and Wales, according to the government.

Viridi and Budderfly announced a partnership to install commercial battery energy storage systems at 100 Budderfly sites across the United States, according to Solar Builder.

The deployment brings Viridi's commercial battery energy storage system (BESS) products to those sites and marks an expansion for Budderfly and its energy infrastructure platform, per Solar Builder.

Work under the agreement is advancing in California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, according to Solar Builder.

Budderfly is headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut, and is led by CEO Al Subbloie, Solar Builder reported. Jon M. Williams is CEO of Viridi.