As part of our daily planning processes within the ESO control room, the control room strategy team produces a System Operating Plan (SOP) at key demand peaks or troughs throughout the day, at what we call a Cardinal Point (CP). Prior to each CP the Strategy team hand over the relevant SOP to the real-time Energy team, who then use this plan to take real-time operational decisions to balance the electricity system. The SOP is a snapshot of key information that is available to the ENCC at that time of its creation and based on this information provides a flexible strategic plan to ensure the ESO fulfills all its obligations to balance the system. The information within the SOP ensures that the most economic, secure, and flexible plan is developed for that moment in time at the time of handover. The real-time energy team constantly reviews the information within the SOP to ensure it is still relevant as they approach the CP, so that to ensure the operational plan is still valid, and if required modify as needed. On this page, we aim to publish the following SOPs every day ahead of the respective cardinal point: 1A, 1B, 2F/A/B (whichever is the peak of the morning), 3B, 3C & 4B. For further background on the SOP please view our [Introduction to SOPs document](https://www.nationalgrideso.com/data-portal/system-operating-plan-sop/an_introduction_to_system_operator_plans), additionally, you can find explanations of the terms used in the SOP in our [SOP Glossary document](https://www.nationalgrideso.com/data-portal/system-operating-plan-sop/glossary_of_terms_used_in_system_operating_plan). >**NOTE:** We are currently experiencing issues with the quality of the published SOP data in the Data Portal. Our team is actively investigating the matter and working towards a resolution. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.