‘Working in partnership with our stakeholders’ was the golden thread running through our distribution system operation (DSO) conference held in central Manchester last week.

With over 120 attendees both in person and online, the day proved an exceptional opportunity for our stakeholders to hear about the work our DSO has undertaken over the last 12 months, as well as some of our future plans.

Four speakers from across the energy space shared a more detailed view of the region as well as the national picture.

Keynote speakers

• Andrew McIntosh, Director for Sustainable Growth and Infrastructure, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
• Helen Seagrave, Director of Local Energy, Great British Energy
• Dan Griffiths, Head of Low Carbon, Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Melanie Taylor, Head of Regional Energy Strategic Planning, National Energy System Operator (NESO)

Our two speakers from GMCA, Andrew McIntosh and Dan Griffiths, discussed the importance of the region’s 10-year strategy highlighting one of the main goals as ensuring “…a more equal and greener future for all our people.”  This underpins their five-year environment plan which is striving to “ensure everyone in Greater Manchester has a healthy, low carbon, nature-rich environment in which to live-well, prosper and grow.”

Ensuring the importance of working and collaborating with our stakeholders was addressed, Andrew, who is also the chair of our DSO Stakeholder Panel, explained the benefits and importance of their role, and how their objective input both challenges and inspires us in the work that we do. You can read more about this here (link to DSO Stakeholder Panel)

Helen Seagrave was definitive in GB Energy’s ambition to ensure that as a publicly owned company they can be the catalyst for a just transition, adding that “as a nation we should be able to own and benefit from our natural resources” and that a cleaner energy future should not only tackle climate change and sustainability, but also create jobs and reduce bills for all households.  This is the message that stems from the recently published Local Energy Plan, and something that we, as a social DSO, are passionate about and why we ensure that everything we do ultimately benefits the communities we serve across the North West.

Finally, Melanie Taylor from NESO, talked us through the transitional Regional Energy Strategic Plan (tRESP) published recently, ahead of the full RESP in 2028. The aim of this bridging publication is to fully support electricity networks’ own business plans which are well underway now ahead of the next price control period, running from 2028-2033.

We welcomed our Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie Trubshaw, who discussed the importance of open dialogue for change and shared some of our key highlights of the year.

IMAGE highlights

Stephanie added, “The work our DSO carries out is essential to the future of energy use; how we encourage, support and develop the decarbonisation of the North West to meet the needs of the communities we serve, and beyond. Our ambition as a social DSO is to continually enable individuals and businesses to transform their energy use in a fair, affordable and timely way."

Plus, as a wider team, our DSO colleagues provided snapshots of some of our ambitious and impactful achievements from the last 12 months:

• The launch and ongoing success of our industry-leading Automated Network Management (ANM) system
• Our social DSO fund which as already supported six community and local energy projects since its launch in December 2025
• Our enhanced Distribution Network Operational Assessment (DNOA) which opened up more flexibility options when network planning
• ‘Empower’ – our brand-new and bespoke local authority three-part training programme to support the development of Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs)

The essence of the day was to ensure we continue to hear from all of our stakeholders, and as such we ended the day with 12 round table discussions with stakeholders and DSO leads getting into the detail of:

• LAEPs and how we can work together
• Flexibility and the future
• The importance of data
• Connections and how DSO can enable efficiency
• Social DSO and you
• Innovation to support your net zero needs

Paul Auckland, Head of Economic Regulation & DSO and our host for the day, said: “Listening to and acting upon our stakeholders’ feedback ensures our activities as a social DSO benefit all of our customers to understand, manage and take part in a just, inclusive and efficient energy transition as part of the UK's green growth ambitions. By planning our future network and unlocking whole system benefits and driving sustainable electricity technologies we believe we will be able to meet growing energy demand and support local priorities."