Proposal to introduce the Future Regulation Sandbox
Call for input
- Open
- Closed
- Publication date
- Closed date
- Industry sector
- Distribution Network
- Generation and Wholesale Market
- Offshore Transmission Network
- Supply and Retail Market
- Transmission Network
The GB energy market is characterised by continued change and innovation, which is helping to delivering a net zero energy system at lowest cost to consumers. As the regulator, we face the challenge of keeping the rulebook that governs the energy sector fit for purpose and in step with these changes, balancing the desire to enable innovation with the need for rules to ensure sufficient protection to consumers, system integrity and efficient market functioning. To meet this challenge, we have been looking at ways in which we ourselves can innovate our practices as a regulator.
We are proposing to introduce a Future Regulation Sandbox (FRS), an innovative policy instrument to test and trial changes to the energy rulebook before making them, in a controlled environment. This proposal builds on the experience of other regulators in several countries who have used trials to inform decisions about potential regulatory changes. We believe such Sandboxes can be a powerful tool to unlock and drive innovation.
This call for input is our response to the Innovation Link’s call for feedback on evaluation and evolution of our innovator support services. This document paints our vision for the FRS, its purpose, potential use-cases and how it could be implemented. We are seeking views from stakeholders on whether they too see value in our proposal for a FRS, what topics it could be used for, and how the FRS could best be implemented to maximise their benefits to the market.
We request that stakeholders send us their responses by 17:00 on 19 January to InnovationLink@ofgem.gov.uk.