Memorandum: Written submission to the
Energy & Climate Change Committee from UK
Power Networks on power disruption due to
severe weather over the Christmas period 2013
1.
Introduction
1.1
UK Power Networks owns, operates and manages three of the 14 electricity distribution networks (DNOs)
in Great Britain: London, the East and South East. Our net works operate in the fastest-growing and
highest-cost area of the country, delivering electricity to 8.1 million customers via 46,000km of overhead
2
lines and 138,000km of underground cables (across an area of approximately 30,000km ).
1.2
UK Power Networks welcomes the committee’s decision to hold a one-off evidence session on disruption
due to severe weather overnight on 23/24 December 2013. Our customers are at the heart of UK Power
Networks’ business and we are sorry for any disruption and inconvenience that people across our net work
faced as a result of the storm. Following any severe weather event there will be customers who lose
power and, to our regret, this was no different. All our efforts, therefore, were focus ed on reconnecting
power supplies in the quickest and safest way possible. More than 850 of our engineers and technical
staff worked tirelessly over the festive season to restore power to our customers.
2.
The December storm
2.1
In December 2013, UK Power Networks and our customers had to cope wit h some of the most severe
weat her in decades. The Met Office reported that England had its windiest December since 1969 and one
of the windiest months since January 1993. Saturated ground, combined with the higher rainfall, resulted
in localised flooding across the South East. According to the Environment Agency, the South East region
suffered its worst flooding since the autumn of 2000.
3.
Preparation for the severe weather event
3.1
UK Power Networks’ standard policy for Christmas leave is to maintain 50% cover. In November the
decision was taken to increase Christmas cover to 75% as a res ult of continuing unsettled weather over
the winter. Additional standby cover was also provided every night across all rotas. Additional contractors
were contacted as soon as it became apparent that the storm was likely to significantly impact the
network.
3.2
Preparation continued over the weekend of 21 and 22 December by contacting the other distribution
companies to invoke NEWSAC (the industry mutual aid arrangements), notifying our contractors and
putting UK Power Networks on high alert. This included the cancellation of all planned works on our
networks.
3.3
The December storm was unlike the St Jude storm in October in that its impact was spread across the
whole of mainland Britain, although its impact was significantly worse in the South and South E ast. As a
result, we requested additional resourc e from other network operators but were unable to secure this until
27 December as the other networks were very busy restoring power to customers in their own areas or
waiting for the anticipated storms to hit.
3.4
In the days prior to the storm contact was made with key partners, including the British Red Cross (BRC),
to ensure they were resourced to provide support to our vulnerable customers as part of our annual
investment in the charity.
UK Po wer Ne tworks (Opera tio ns) Limi ted . Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 3870728. R egistered Office: New ington House, 237 Southw ark Bridge R oad, London, SE1 6 NP
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4.
5.
Impact and response to the storm
4.1
Damage to overhead power lines was extensive with nearly 2,400 faults, both high and low voltage. Within
a few hours of the storm hitting, the network had suffered signific antly more damage in a few hours than
we normally see in six weeks – on a normal day we might see approximately 50 faults.
4.2
As a result of the storms overnight on 23/ 24 December, more than 460,000 of our customers in the
Eastern and Sout h Eastern networks had their supplies interrupt ed. We restored power to 93% within 24
hours and of thes e 145, 000 had power restored wit hin three minutes. On Christmas Day itself, our
engineers restored power to about 10,000 customers but unfortunately some 20,000 households had their
Christmas Day affected.
4.3
After the storm, we worked closely with the BRC welfare teams, comprising 91 volunt eers, who were
deployed on 37 occasions to visit vulnerable customers we were aware of across the East and South
East.
4.4
By working with local restaurants, pubs, hotels and catering companies, we were able to provide food and
accommodation to those in the worst-hit areas, including more than 900 meals on Christmas Day and
Boxing Day.
4.5
On 24 December, we took the decision to exceed Ofgem’s requirements and inc rease the normal storm
payments which customers rec eived, in recognition of the impact on their Christmases. We introduced a
payment of £75 for customers who were without power at any time on Christmas Day even though the
Regulator only requires us to pay £27 if a customer is off supply bet ween 48 and 60 hours. If they were off
for between 60 and 72 hours, the payment will be £108 (double the industry standard of £54). For each
further 12-hour period thereafter, an additional £54 will be paid (double the industry standard of £27) up to
a maximum of £432. We are pleased that other DNOs have since replicated this decision.
4.6
We are writing to all of our customers who are eligible for payments, although this is not part of our
regulatory duties, and will also be making the application form available online.
Lessons learned
5.1
We always review our performance, and identify specific improvements, should similar severe weather
events take place in future. Whilst UK Power Networks was able to restore supplies to more than 90% of
our customers within 24 hours, in very difficult conditions, we will continue to look for ways to improve.
5.2
We are working with Government on their review of the Christmas storms which will focus on
communications with household energy customers, necessary resources to be able to cope with
wides pread disruption, and the compensation proc ess.
5.3
UK Power Networks have also initiated an int ernal review conducted by independent, external, expert
consultants. This is due to report within the next couple of months and we will keep the Secret ary of State
for Energy and Climate Change and the Committee informed of its progress.
UK Po wer Ne tworks (Opera tio ns) Limi ted . Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 3870728. R egistered Office: New ington House, 237 Southw ark Bridge R oad, London, SE1 6 NP
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Appendix
6.
Investment in network improvement and resilience
6.1
Over rec ent years UK Power Networks has improved net work resilience. This is demonstrated by the
current outperformance of the Customer Interruptions (CI) and Customer Minutes Lost (CML) targets set
by Ofgem, thereby delivering a more reliable service to customers.
6.2
During the last three years, investment in the net work has increased to improve the resilience of our
assets. We have reduced the average time a customer can expect to be out of power in a year by 40%
and the average number of customers expected to have a power interruption has been reduced by 38%.
6.3
The improved performance has largely been driven by on-going investment and operational performance
improvements which have focused on the efficient and innovative use of the existing network assets.
Net Network Additions (£M)
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
331.00
367.00
467.00
531.20
578.80
592.20
513.10
544.20
The two tables below show how the quality of supply has improved over the last four years.
UK Po wer Ne tworks (Opera tio ns) Limi ted . Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 3870728. R egistered Office: New ington House, 237 Southw ark Bridge R oad, London, SE1 6 NP
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UK Po wer Ne tworks (Opera tio ns) Limi ted . Registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 3870728. R egistered Office: New ington House, 237 Southw ark Bridge R oad, London, SE1 6 NP
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