Scottish Affairs Committee - A Robust Grid for 21st Century ScotlandSupplementary written evidence submitted by Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution

December 2011–January 2012 Storm Review Summary

Background

SHEPD’s network is over 46,000 km long and serves over 740,000 customers across a 55,000 km² area in the north of Scotland, including the majority of the Scottish islands. The disparate communities served across the network is demonstrated by the fact that SHEPD’s operating area covers 25% of the UK land mass but has only 2% of all UK customers. This reflects the large number of small remote communities served. Over the decade 2005–15, SHEPD will have invested £385 million on its electricity distribution network.

Winter 2011–12

Over the four week period during December 2011 and January 2012 there were five weather related exceptional events which led to a total of approximately 186,000 customers having their electricity supply disrupted. As an indication of the damage to the network, SHEPD experienced 600 separate faults and over 1,000 points of damage on 3 January 2012 and undertook the equivalent of three months of fault repair work in four days. More specific details of the exceptional weather events have previously been provided to the Committee.

As the most northerly Distribution Network Operator (DNO), SHEPD has to endure more extreme weather events than other networks and over the most recent winter period we were quicker and better prepared than other DNOs. In spite of the extremes of damage on the network, SHEPD restored customers supply quicker and actually paid more compensation per individual than any other DNO, despite a significant portion of the network being exempt under legislation.1

SHEPD’s response to the exceptional weather events

Overall, SHEPD considers that we prepared and responded extremely well to the exceptional weather events in December and early January. This was as a result of our operational preparedness, our commitment to excellent customer service and our determination to ensure a secure supply of electricity to our customers under all circumstances. A key focus for our business is to ensure the resilience of the network and security of supply to our customers at all times.

Pre-planning

SHEPD has a well practised and rehearsed 24 hour operation for exceptional weather events, making the most of daylight hours and using the overnight periods to prepare properly for the following morning. SHEPD has a very good relationship with a number of communities, local authorities, NGOs, emergency services, the Scottish Government and other stakeholders so that, when exceptional weather does occur, all parties are well prepared.

Mobilising engineers

In each of the two largest events of the winter, SHEPD had over 700 people, working for us from across the UK and Ireland, restoring electricity supplies. In some areas, parts of the electricity network had to be rebuilt as it was so badly damaged. A key reason behind our successful response was the mobilisation of engineers days ahead of potential storm events. This resulted in us being exceptionally well prepared and even with substantial damage some of which is still being repaired, our customers were restored before other communities elsewhere in Scotland. To highlight this, for the storm events from 3–7 January 2012, we had 765 engineers working in difficult conditions in both Argyll and Tayside:

—	External contractors and other DNO linesmen	281
—	SEPD linesmen	65
—	SHEPD linesmen	419
—	Total	765

SHEPD personnel should be commended for their effort and the long hours worked to restore supplies to customers as quickly as possible, not only over the New Year holiday period but during December and throughout the Christmas period dealing with an unprecedented number of exceptional weather events over the four week period.

Customer communication

During the last period of disruption (3–7 January 2012) SHEPD’s emergency service centre took over 35,000 calls from customers and made thousands of calls to vulnerable customers. This represented a 50-fold increase—250 calls per day to 12,000. SHEPD used Twitter (www.twitter.com/ssepd) to communicate with over 300 customers who were without power and over 70 update messages were broadcast using the social networking site.

SHEPD’s website was kept up-to-date regularly with the latest position and some 6,700 visitors used the website during 3–7 January. SHEPD’s press office handled 328 separate media enquiries during this period, issued 12 proactive press releases and took part in nine radio and four TV interviews.

Compensation

Legislation states that DNOs are required to pay customers £27 for 48 hours off supply following a Category 2 Exceptional Event, and £27 for every subsequent 12 hour period. Due to the low population density, topological challenges and climatic conditions, in legislation the Highlands and Islands area is exempt from compensation while being off supply for these extreme weather events.

Despite having the option to, SHEPD chose to disregard this exemption and paid an ex-gratia payment of £75 to all customers off supply for more than 48 hours. SHEPD paid an ex-gratia payment of £150 to customers on Islay who had suffered an extended period of multiple interruptions due to local network issues. In total 1900 customers have so far been paid £140,000 in compensation following the exceptional weather events in December and January and this total will rise to over £300,000 once all existing claims are paid.

Improving our operations during exceptional weather events

SHEPD considers that we responded extremely well to these exceptional weather events, but there are always important areas of learning that present themselves in such circumstances. SHEPD is committed to ensuring we are able respond to exceptional events effectively and to improve the resilience of our network. Having initially reviewed our performance over the winter period, we are looking to implement the following operational changes to ensure continual improvement to our preparations and response to exceptional weather events.

Engineer communication

During the exceptional weather events there were limited instances of problems with internal and external telecommunication networks. SHEPD has a number of alternatives in place to facilitate greater communication, but there are always innovative and technological improvements that can be utilised. SHEPD is investing £4million on upgrading its private mobile radio network. Following the investment in a private mobile radio network to assist communication with our engineers in the field, SHEPD will look to base of number of receivers in our retail shops in remote communities to ensure that information is disseminated effectively during supply disruptions.

Remote network maintenance

In some instances, SHEPD personnel were unable to immediately reach remote communities due to transport infrastructure being damaged or blocked. SHEPD will examine if this aspect of our response can be improved. We will also explore the possibility of a community representative being trained with the necessary skills to undertake basic restoration work, when engineers cannot attend a location immediately.

Proactive community engagement

SHEPD will seek to engage with communities more effectively to inform them of network faults and refurbishments. We acknowledge that our community communication and engagement may have led to a misunderstanding of the cause of the supply disruptions over the winter, and this may have caused a breakdown in relationships with some communities. SHEPD will look to review internal processes to ensure that communities are informed of significant network maintenance and improvements.

Vulnerable customer identification

SHEPD has limited access to customer information. Our Priority Services Register is a voluntary list that requires vulnerable customers to inform their supplier of their circumstances. SHEPD will look to work with all relevant stakeholders to remove barriers to a single co-ordinated vulnerable persons register, and which could best identify vulnerable customers during periods of supply disruption.

Vegetation management

The majority of faults which kept customers off supply during the recent exceptional weather events were caused by wind borne debris, most notably the uprooting and damage to trees. SHEPD will investigate whether changes to our current tree cutting programme could result in fewer instances of overhead line damage during exceptional weather events. If this proves to be the case, then we will implement any changes immediately. It is worth noting that DNOs are not funded to maintain falling clearance from trees in proximity to the whole of their networks. However, we will look work with the Forestry Commission and other commercial woodland owners to improve the resilience to large groups of customers.

Price control review

Ofgem has begun its price control review consultation for 2015 to 2023. SHEPD will continue to positively engage with stakeholders to ensure that its price control review process results in an efficient and cost-effective electricity distribution network for the communities of northern Scotland and that best meets the needs of all stakeholders.

SHEPD Islay Investment

Following severe gales that affected the SHEPD network in May 2011, a customer from Portnahaven wrote a letter of complaint to SHEPD. We replied and indicated the circuit that supplied the customer was to be refurbished that summer. We had reviewed the circuits fault performance earlier in the year and concluded it required this work done.

However, following the May event and more faults on the circuit, our planning team again reviewed the circuit performance and decided to carry out a more detailed analysis of its condition over the summer months, before developing detailed project plans over the winter. This decision was the reason for the delay, due to concerns that the original plans may not address all of the issues requiring to be tackled on the Islay circuit as a whole.

The refurbishment work was substituted for a scheme to refurbish a 33kV overhead line feeder between Port Ann and Lochgilphead at a cost of approximately £800,000. The circuit to Islay emanates from Port Ann and this work will also have been of benefit to the island. The review of the Islay circuit was carried out over summer 2011 and a scheme costing in the region of £1.8 million is currently being prepared and is scheduled to begin this coming summer. The scheme will address the problems experienced over the last two years. In the meantime, we are also doing live line refurbishment work on Islay to give some immediate improvement.

There has been confusion regarding this decision and we acknowledge that we could have improved our communication of the delay with the residents of Islay and the reasons for this. We are reviewing our internal processes to address how we can best pro-actively engage with communities to inform them of future network improvements.

A number of additional problems between September 2010 and March 2011 cited by the residents of Islay, were due to having to rely on local generation capacity at Bowmore due to a irreparable fault on the submarine cable from Jura. The cable between Jura and Islay is located in a particularly fast flowing seabed and is subject to more erosion than most of our submarine cables. These problems will have been addressed by a £8 million investment to replace the submarine cable that was completed in late March 2011.

In order to secure the island’s supply further we are actively looking at using sub-sea boring to place a cable between Jura and Islay. This will not therefore be subject to tidal erosion and should improve the supply on the island over the long term. The estimated cost of this scheme is currently £3 million. The combination of the comprehensive refurbishment noted above and the submarine cable replacement will considerably improve the quality of supply on the island. Additionally, we have also recently signed off a £730,000 upgrade to the power station at Bowmore that will improve the performance of the station.

This would mean that in the period since late 2010 and summer 2012, Islay would have benefited from four major projects which in total have cost in the region of £11 million (see below), all of which was committed investment ahead of the recent weather events. This figure does not include the cost of having to restore supplies during the unprecedented weather events of winter 2011–12 and the subsequent compensation we paid, which will cost SHEPD upwards of £3 million.

SHEPD would admit that it could have improved communication with the local community over the original decision to refurbish the circuit in 2011 and communication of the subsequent decision to delay the work in favour of a more comprehensive refurbishment. But we would disagree that the decision to undertake more comprehensive refurbishment works, requiring the additional planning and development time up to the summer of 2012, was not in the best long term interest of the residents of Islay.

It is worth noting that the decision to delay the initial refurbishment work would not have aided the supply to customers for the winter 2011–12 storms as the issues were largely independent of each other.

Recent and potential upcoming major projects to improve supply on Islay

*Timings and costs indicative*

Project	Project timeline	Cost
Jura-Islay submarine cable replacement	Complete	£8,000,000
33kV refurb between Port Ann and Lochgilphead	Complete	£800,000
Bowmore power station works	Starts summer 2012	£730,000
Comprehensive network refurbish on Islay	Starts summer 2012	£1,800,000
Jura-Islay sub-sea drilling connection	In project development	£3,000,000
	Total	£14,330,000

21 February 2012