NZIP represents a strategic expansion of the successful North-East Wales Industrial Decarbonisation (NEWID) approach, scaling it across SPEN’s entire licence area—including Scotland, England, and North Wales. This project will, for the first time, deliver a whole energy system view of future industrial decarbonisation requirements, directly addressing a critical gap in SPEN’s ED3 planning process. By engaging with key regional stakeholders, NZIP will generate robust, data-driven pathways that complement existing projections for domestic and transport energy demand. NZIP will provide essential intelligence to inform investment decisions and support SPEN’s transition to a net zero energy system.

Benefits

Greater confidence in forecasts with stakeholder driven evidence. Present day energy mapping followed by net zero profiling will be undertaken for each industrial site which engages and participates in the project. The proposed method will not only help accurately define the range in future energy demand at each site for decarbonisation vectors such as electrification and hydrogen fuel switching but can also potentially provide initial indication of probability that one site decarbonisation solution might be preferred over another.  

Drives investment, factoring in local ambition. By capturing industrial decarbonisation pathway scenarios, this could support £6-20m of ED3 investment. This value has been estimated based on the output of NEWID and the anticipated benefits as a result of the information obtained within the project. Distribution and Transmission network assessments will develop geographically based regional industrial decarbonisation pathways, relating to SPENs network supply points to support the inclusion of future industrial electricity and electrification demand with the performance of the wider network assessment work undertaken to generate SPEN’s draft and final ED3 planning document and 2026/27 DFES publications.