Ofgem approves a housekeeping rewrite of the SQSS
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe Authority - GEMA, supported by Ofgem - has approved GSR037, a set of formatting and housekeeping changes to the National Electricity Transmission System Security and Quality of Supply Standard. The decision was published on 18 September 2026 and takes effect ten business days after it, with the notice serving as the statement of reasons required by section 49A of the Electricity Act 1989. Its audience is NESO, the SQSS Panel and SQSS users.
The SQSS is the document that sets the criteria and methodology for planning and operating the transmission system, kept under review by the SQSS Panel. NESO raised GSR037 on 5 February 2026 after it and industry stakeholders identified formatting inconsistencies, structural problems and referencing errors in the current text. The changes include restructuring the definitions section into a table and renumbering Section J. Expected impact, per NESO's Final Modification Report, is low on Transmission Owners, OFTOs, DNOs, NESO and the Authority.
What it means
Read past the word "housekeeping" and the justification is the interesting part. NESO's stated case is not that the SQSS is untidy but that its untidiness makes the standard difficult to navigate and interpret, and that this in turn makes it harder to develop and implement other code modifications efficiently. That is a claim about throughput, not aesthetics: the rulebook's legibility is an input to how fast every future change to it can be made, and a referencing error inside a planning standard is a trap for whoever drafts the next modification against it.
Which is why the "low impact" rating and the seven-month path from February to September sit oddly together, and are worth noting rather than criticising. A change that no party is expected to feel still went through a Panel, a Final Modification Report and an Authority decision under statutory notice requirements - because the governance process has no cheaper lane for edits that do not change obligations. For anyone tracking how long a substantive SQSS modification takes, GSR037 is a useful floor: this is what the full process costs for the most uncontroversial change available.
The practical note for users is small and real. Section J is renumbered and the definitions now live in a table, so any internal document, compliance checklist or model that cites SQSS clauses by number should be checked against the new text once it is in force - ten business days from 18 September. A cross-reference that silently points at the wrong clause is exactly the class of error this modification was raised to remove.