Ofgem investigates UKPN and SSE over Christmas storm response

UK Power Networks and SSE could face fines as Ofgem today launched an investigation into their response to storms that hit over Christmas.

The regulator examined the performance of all six distribution network operators (DNOs) hit by the extreme weather and found UKPN and SSE had been slowest to respond.

Nearly a million households lost power for more than three minutes between 23 and 28 December, as high winds battered power lines. While 95 per cent were back online within 24 hours, some 500 customers in UKPN and SSE’s areas were without electricity for more than five days.

Western Power Distribution won praise for responding to calls “almost immediately”, while a fifth of UKPN and SSE customers hung up before getting through to an advisor.

Hannah Nixon, Ofgem senior partner for distribution, said: “Being without electricity is difficult for customers at the best of times, let alone during a holiday period. Whilst we recognise the hard work of the DNOs’ operational staff during the severe weather over Christmas 2013, we are very concerned with the variations in the effect of the storms on customers in different areas.”

UKPN was hardest hit by the storms, which caused more than 2,000 faults across its three regions, cutting off 358,000 customers. Chief executive Basil Scarsella said he was confident that “once the impact of the storm on our service area is taken into account, our performance over Christmas will stand up well to scrutiny”.

SSE had the second highest number of disruptions to handle, with 264,000 customers affected. Blogging on today’s announcement, managing director of networks Mark Mathieson emphasised the severity of the weather but said the company was “not complacent” and invited customers to give their views.

Alongside the investigation, Ofgem will consult on raising the level of compensation available to customers cut off during bad weather. DNOs estimate 26,000 customers are entitled to a total of £2 million at statutory rates. UKPN and SSE volunteered a further £7.5 million to affected customers in their areas.

Nixon said: “Our principal duty is to protect the interest of consumers. We will be looking at increasing guaranteed standards payments during severe weather. If our further investigation into the performance of UKPN and SSE during the 2013 Christmas storms suggests that these companies have breached their licence conditions, we will undertake enforcement action that could result in a financial penalty.”

The Department of Energy and Climate Change also produced a report, which commended the “tireless efforts” of network staff over the period. It noted most DNOs had been in a state of emergency response since October, when storm St Jude hit.

It recommended more work to improve communications with customers, however, by setting up a national power cut helpline and giving networks access to better customer contact details.

Consumer Futures welcomed the two reports and called for more to be done to indentify and support priority customers, in particular. Director Adam Scorer said: “The storms exposed deficiencies in aspects of the network operators’ response, particularly in the way they communicated with their customers about the outages. People have reported telephoning help lines that ring out, or getting through and not receiving the information they needed. There is clearly huge room for improvement in companies where anticipating and preparing for extreme weather is a core part of their role.”