Distributed Flexibility Strategy Lead

About the role

National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognises the potential of bright and talented individuals, and we encourage you to join us as Great Britain’s energy system undergoes an ambitious, exciting, and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

The NESO ‘Markets’ function designs and delivers a range of long-term and near real-time markets to balance and operate a secure, rapidly decarbonising GB electricity system, at lowest costs to consumers. These markets were worth over £3bn in the financial year ending March 2022, so represent a major investment signal to a wide range of electricity supply, demand and flexibility technologies.

Within Markets, the Flexibility and Electricity Markets Development team (FEMD) is part of the strategic engine – creating the vision for the markets which support a decarbonised energy system and designing the roadmap to get there.

The Distributed Flexibility Strategy and Policy team, part of FEMD, aims to enable and unlock flexibility, including distributed generation, storage, and demand side flexibility such as EV charging and electric heating. This team developed our Enabling Demand Side Flexibility roadmap, which outlines all the actions required to reform NESO’s markets so that distributed and demand side flexibility is able to participate easily in our markets.

The Flexibility Strategy Lead will work in this team.

This role can be based from Wokingham, Warwick or Glasgow, and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home. We are open to full time and part time applicants, as well as flexible working arrangements.

National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) mission is to facilitate the decarbonisation of Great Britain’s energy network and ensure the delivery of reliable, affordable, and clean electricity for consumers. We work with stakeholders across the whole energy industry to plan for future network needs, using a wider adoption of technology and changes in consumer behaviour, as well as ensuring we have the right markets, networks, and frameworks in place, to transform the way we operate tomorrow.

Join us, and let’s energise progress.

energy, our future, together.

In Autumn of 2024, the ESO transitioned to National Energy System Operator, or NESO for short. Previously denoted as the Future System Operator (or FSO), the new National Energy System Operator is the independent body responsible for planning Great Britain’s electricity and gas networks and operating the electricity system.

The ESO, including all of its existing roles, are now at the heart of the new National Energy System Operator. As NESO, we will build on our existing roles, capabilities, and ways of working significantly to create an organisation the energy system and its users’ need. Our new capabilities will enable us to look across vectors, including electricity, natural gas and hydrogen, and crucially consider the trade-offs between them.

The organisation is set up as a public corporation with its own Board of independent directors, with complete operational independence from government, the regulator and any and all commercial interest. As was the ESO, NESO will be licenced and regulated by Ofgem through price control agreements and obligated to identify optimal solutions to system operations and planning in the most sustainable, affordable and secure way for all.

You will need to understand and be aware of the interactions between electricity markets, investment policy and market participant commercial behaviour, so that you can develop holistic, net-zero compliant policy positions which provide optimal consumer value. Your work will also help shape the NESO’s thinking and positions that enable us to grow demand side flexibility and reach our Clean Power 2030 targets which will require an understanding of NESO system needs.

You will develop our strategies to enable DSO market growth. This includes removing service barriers for NESO Markets, working closely with Elexon as the Market Facilitator and managing and delivering NESO…