A campaign to help parents across the region keep their children safe and support teachers on the hunt for free resources to assist them with educating pupils about electricity and staying safe has powered ahead after being seen more than half a million times.

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the electricity network that powers everyday life for 8 million customers across 3.9 million homes and businesses in the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, created the free online electricity safety lesson which has been successfully shared and viewed across the summer months.

The campaign, promoted an interactive presentation designed to help seven to 11-year-olds (Key Stage 2) learn about electricity, how it is produced and gets to their home as well as the dangers and the importance of staying away from the region’s power network. It has been seen some 600,000 times on social media and through digital adverts with more than 17,000 people clicking through to watch the presentation. 

Michelle Cummings, Northern Powergrid’s Social Responsibility Manager, said: “With the pandemic, we haven’t been able to get into local schools to deliver our safety presentations, and this is likely to remain challenging in the winter months ahead.  This campaign has proven to be a vital way to help us continue to deliver our commitments to spreading electricity safety messages in the communities we serve.

“It supports our safety animation, which has been visible on social media more than 657,000 times and achieved more than 209,000 views.  We hope this interactive presentation supports parents and teachers to help ensure youngsters understand the power and the very real danger of electricity and how to stay safe by staying away from substations and power lines.”

Following the success of the trial campaign, Northern Powergrid plans to run more campaigns promoting the free resources.

Northern Powergrid, as part of its planning for 2023 and beyond, has launched its draft business plan.  The company has openly shared its plans and commitment to be an energy industry leader in safety and keep its colleagues and members of the public safe.

Northern Powergrid is currently engaging with its customers and other key stakeholders to understand if they agree and accept its proposals in readiness for submitting its final business plan for 2023-28 to the energy regulator, Ofgem, on 1 December 2021.