What we said we'd do

As the electricity transmission owner in England and Wales, we're responsible for the safe and reliable operation of an extensive network of assets. Our role is to protect the public and those who work on our network, from the inherent dangers associated with providing a high voltage electricity transmission supply.

Our outputs will make sure that we protect the public from harm. We will maintain our current high levels of reliability so that electricity is available whenever and wherever current and future consumers want it. Our outputs include:

  • We will deliver world-class levels of safety and maintain our service reliability of 99.9999 per cent.
  • We will invest to renew and modernise 6 to 19 per cent of our different network asset types to maintain reliability for future generations.
  • We will deliver three major electricity cable projects in London, Sheffield and North Wales to maintain security of supply.
  • We will divert our river-crossing on the Tyne to support growth in manufacturing (including wind turbines) in the North-East of England.
     

What we’ve done and what we’re going to do

Safety

Safety continues to be our number one priority but unfortunately our overall Injury Frequency Rate (IFR) of 0.14 is not at the level we strive for.  We hold ourselves to the very highest standards for safety, proactively considering it in everything we do. Amongst our directly-employed colleagues, this is reflected in a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of 0.07 which is below our target of 0.1, which we consider to be world-class. A persistent injury rate amongst our contractors has resulted in us exceeding that level overall.  Action taken with the contractor community has helped in identifying common factors in recent incidents and, with the implementation of improvement plans, it is envisaged the contractor LTIFR will reduce. As we look forward to our growing workbook, we have increased the scope, remit and engagement in our Contractor Safety Forum, embarked on a focus on the severity of incidents and will continue our Behavioural Safety programme assisting leaders and teams with the tools and techniques for coaching for safety. The reduction of all incidents, especially those with potential to harm, remains a key driver in Electricity Transmission.

Reliability

We are committed to delivering a reliable network, which our stakeholders consistently tell us is critical for them. We have maintained our record of strong performance, exceeding our reliability target for another year with 0MWh of incentivised ‘Energy Not Supplied’ in 2023/24 against an incentive neutral point of 147MWh.  This equates to an average network reliability of 99.999998%.   We have continued to invest in the network for the benefit of future consumers and customers, managing network risk and maintaining longer-term system reliability.