Northern Powergrid Delivers Improvements for Customers

Filed Under:

News Releases

Northern Powergrid

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for keeping the lights on across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire has delivered for customers its best-ever performance standards for network reliability and equaled its best performance for safety around the electricity network.

The news comes as the electricity distributor publishes its annual performance report for customers and stakeholders.

Available on northernpowergrid.com/yourpowergrid, the report describes how the company has performed over the past regulatory year (2015-16) against the commitments made in its eight-year price control period.

The report is the first in a series of annual reports, which sees Northern Powergrid invest £3 billion on large infrastructure projects, replacement and development of the region’s power network. It sets out the company’s successes as well as its areas for improvement in the future.

Good progress has been made across the company’s commitments which include:

• delivering 20% shorter and 8% fewer power cuts;
• cutting costs for customers;
• reducing the time it takes to connect new customers by 30%;
• achieving 50% lower accident rates;
• reducing the company’s carbon footprint by 10%; and
• reducing oil leakage to the ground by 15%.

In addition to hitting its highest levels of network reliability and equaling its best safety performance, the company has reduced network-related costs on customers’ bills from their chosen electricity supplier by 14% in 2015-16.

The company’s response to the severe weather of last winter, particularly Storms Desmond and Eva is summarized in the report. Storm Desmond, in early December 2015, saw 37,000 customers experience power cuts (mostly in the North East) due to overhead line damage caused by the wind, and 85% were restored within 12 hours. Storm Eva, in Christmas week, caused severe flooding and interrupted supplies to 37,000 customers across West and North Yorkshire. Some 94% of customers were restored within 12 hours with the remainder restored as soon as the floodwaters receded allowing essential repairs to take place.

Other highlights in the report include:

• 2.2m contacts with customers, more than three quarters being proactive outbound calls by the company;
• 41% of power cuts now being logged online by customers, helping the company respond quicker;
• Over 32,000 connections made to the region’s electricity network; and
• 16.9km of power cabling put underground in National Parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

The electricity distributor has also published its annual environment report, which accounts for the work the company has done to minimize its environmental impact and prepare the electricity network for the low carbon future. This report sets out that company is on track to cut its carbon footprint by 10% by 2023 and has cut electricity losses from its network by almost 1 GWh by installing larger, more efficient cables.

Phil Jones, Northern Powergrid’s chief executive, said: “Our eight-year plan set ambitious targets to deliver more for our customers for less. We’ve made a strong start in our first year with the vast majority of our commitments either on or ahead of target and we’re ready to deliver more in the years to come.

“We’re a key part of the region’s infrastructure and as we deliver against our business plan we’ll continue to improve services for our customers and fulfill our commitment to bringing the Northern Powerhouse to life by supporting growth and development in the communities we are proud to serve.”

Both reports, along with data tables and an easy-to-read performance snapshot are available at northernpowergrid.com/yourpowergrid.com.