Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the electricity distribution network that powers 3.9 million homes and businesses across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, has hosted a visit by the energy industry regulator Ofgem.
As part of the visit on Tuesday (7 June) the network operator welcomed Ofgem’s Chair, Martin Cave, and Director of Retail, Neil Lawrence, to see first-hand how Northern Powergrid is investing to support its customers now and in the future and how it works with a range of community partners to increase support to its customers including those who may be more vulnerable.
The regulator spent time with Barnardo’s in Newcastle seeing how Northern Powergrid’s partnership with the charity is helping fund 500 families, identified by Children and Families Newcastle East, to participate in one-to-one support and group workshops to learn ways to be energy efficient and reduce household costs.
The electricity network operator has also funded, through its partnership with the charity Green Doctors, training to enable the Barnardo’s team to share vital energy saving advice. Families may also be referred to Northern Powergrid funded home visits by Green Doctors and benefit from money saving advice specific to the energy use in their homes, as well as receiving energy saving measures such as energy saving bulbs, dehumidifiers, and draught excluders. In addition, Northern Powergrid funds debt advisors at Citizens Advice Newcastle, where families in need can also be referred to. As part of the support pack the families identified are also invited to join Northern Powergrid’s Priority Services Membership which provides extra advice and support to people who may be more vulnerable in a power cut due to their personal or medical circumstances.
During the visit Ofgem’s team also spent time visiting Northern Powergrid’s contact centre to see how the company has invested in a new telephony system to better support customers – especially during periods of increased demand. They also got to meet the Network Control Engineers who are responsible for monitoring and managing the company’s High Voltage (HV) underground and overhead electricity network. Northern Powergrid also shared with the regulator how it is investing in improving its website and innovative technology like ‘Foresight’, ‘Microresilience’ and ‘SilentPower’ to improve its network and support its customers.
Foresight is a £4m+ investment by the network operator in technology that enables its engineers to pinpoint where faults on its low voltage (LV) network are likely and intervene before customers supplies are affected. The technology spots tell-tale signals on the network before a fault happens – like the way an ECG can show an irregular heartbeat before cardiac arrest. It provides a greater understanding of fault types which supports a radical change in Northern Powergrid’s approach to replacement works and can help improve network reliability, efficiency and maintenance programmes. This can benefit customers and result in less physical disruption on the network and emergency roadworks. If the network operator can fix faults in advance, it can keep the power flowing to all of its customers, conserve resources by saving materials, and minimise digging up roads which can disrupt local businesses and householders.
Microresilience is a £2.5m smart-grid programme which uses energy storage systems and innovative communications technology which is being piloted at two key locations – Newcastle’s historic Swing Bridge, and the remote forest village of Byrness, Northumberland – each chosen for the unique challenges they present to the resilience of the energy network. The pioneering technology, which is currently being tested ready for installation in the winter, will maintain power supplies to critical infrastructure and isolated communities.
Northern Powergrid also demonstrated its ‘SilentPower’ electric vehicle, which has an on-board energy storage system that replaces noisy and polluting diesel generators and can quickly and cleanly restore power to homes and businesses during a power cut or essential maintenance work. The vans which have being used across Northern Powergrid’s operating area support the clean energy shift and how Northern Powergrid can temporarily restore power during a power cut or keep the lights on during essential maintenance work for its customers. The SilentPower vehicles can quietly power up to three homes, a small business or a small community centre with just one van for 24 hours – even longer if the homes have domestic solar generation. The vehicles are used, wherever possible, to replace diesel generators which cannot be used on homes that export as well as consume power. Large and cumbersome diesel generators can also have access issues as well as causing air and sound pollution. SilentPower is a quieter and cleaner alternative to enable Northern Powergrid to reach more customers-in-need. The electric vans’ lithium ion batteries are also silent during operation.
Phil Jones, Northern Powergrid’s Chief Executive, said: “We welcomed the opportunity to host the Chair and Director Retail at Ofgem and share how we are working to improve the systems and services we provide to support our customers and investing in our network.
“We have set out a £3bn+ investment plan from 2023 onwards to improve network resilience, reliability and help create a low carbon energy systems for the region which supports the UK’s net zero emissions ambitions. This visit was an important opportunity to share what we are doing today and our commitment and vision for the future. It also provided a great opportunity for Ofgem to meet some of the dedicated people in our team who work every day behind the scenes to power the region, its economy and the everyday lives of 8 million people.”