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| Welcome to your Stakeholder Update. | |  | Dear stakeholders,
The start of the new year saw our region once again battered by winds of up to 82mph when storms Isha and Jocelyn hit the region in just four days. Several miles of overhead lines were damaged in 200 separate incidents which led to over 96,000 customers being without power. Our network enabled 41 per cent to be restored in under three minutes and 98% of customers were restored in under 24 hours. Hundreds of colleagues supported making over 130,000 proactive calls and texts to customers, coordinating food vans and door knocking teams in affected areas and of course our engineers battled atrocious conditions. Thank you to those that were impacted and our stakeholders who helped in the regional response. Find further details HERE.
This month we launched the 2024/25 partnership funding programme. Grants will be available for groups supporting members of our community who could benefit from Extra Care in the event of a power cut. This year, the fund is open to programmes that will fund resilience around your town, village or needs based community and support your organisation to share with us, learnings from customers with lived experiences of vulnerability? (This is a completely new objective of the fund). The deadline for applications is 15th March, so find out below how to apply.
There's also an update on the Take Charge campaign since its launch in November. The initiative, in partnership with Citizens Advice and Energy Saving Trust: Take Charge is a free impartial advice service to help customers reduce energy bills, get debt and financial support, and even secure funding for energy efficient home improvements.
We are pleased to share our capture reports. The purpose of the capture reports are to capture and play back the discussions that took place across our three 2023 regional stakeholder engagement workshops. They are a review and analysis of each event and the insights discovered.
We're delighted to announce the appointments of Paul Killilea as Asset and Investment Director and Dave Roberts as Digital and Technology Director. The two newly-created strategic roles complete a refresh of Electricity North West’s leadership team.
We also have a Local Authorities update with information regarding Regional Energy Strategy Planners, funding bids and support for project development and a new guid for local authorities and energy networks to collaborate on net zero. Plus, a roundup of the latest news.
You'll find more information in the newsletter.
In this month's newsletter...
Best wishes
The Stakeholder Engagement Team | | | | Partnership funding programme 2024/25 | |  | The Electricity North West Partnership fund is here to support members of our community who could benefit from Extra Care in the event of a power cut.
Grants are available for groups that are supporting communities (either geographical or needs based communities) in areas served by Electricity North West that can demonstrate meaningful impacts against at least one of the funding aims:
Aim 1: How could the fund support individual resilience around your town, village or needs based community?
The purpose of this fund is to proactively increase resilience during a power cut to individuals who may be impacted more than most, either due to their needs or their geographical location.
And / or
Aim 2: How could the fund support your organisation to share with us, learnings from customers with lived experiences of vulnerability? (This is a completely new objective of the fund).
Help us learn! The purpose of this fund is to provide educational opportunities for Electricity North West employees, enabling us to gain a deeper understanding of the potential consequences of a power cut for customer who require Extra Care and help to shape our future support.
Where the criteria is met, organisations are welcome to apply for funding against one or both aims. Where an organisation is applying for both pots of funding, please complete an application for each aim.
The deadline for applications is 17:00, Friday 15th March.
Click HERE to find full details and to apply. | | |  | | Our 2023 annual stakeholder regional capture reports | | Our 2023 annual stakeholder regional workshops took place in November, in partnership with our region's councils, exploring the opportunities and process around regional strategic planning for electricity and the connections journey.
The events encouraged collaborative strategic understanding by providing the information and support we all need from each other on our journey to a connected network including:
- New strategic investments for the region
- Decarbonisation plans and how these align with Electricity North West’s future planning
- New low carbon technologies and the connections required
We are pleased to now share our capture reports. The purpose of these reports are to capture and play back the discussions that took place across our three 2023 regional stakeholder engagement workshops. They are a review and analysis of each event and the insights discovered.
Our 2023 stakeholder workshops were attended by a total of 84 stakeholders, with 136 registrations including; 33 local authority representatives from 19 different authorities, 11 housing associations and 17 first time attendees.
Attendees were impressed by our new pre-application connections engagement team (PACE), data tools (such as out Heatmap tool), education and surgery sessions and want to access these tools with access and visibility of information around grid connectivity and network development and want to collaborate with us on local area energy planning.
We are grateful to all those who attended one of the workshops and value the discussions that took place.
Please click HERE to access the capture reports as well as the associated presentations and our regional investment books that were presented at the events. | | | | Take Charge sees 5000 users in December | |  | Take Charge is an £8m project which aims to support more than 125,000 customers between 2023-2028. The project is funded by Electricity North West delivered by Citizen’s Advice in the North West and promoted by Energy Saving Trust.
The purpose is to help customers to reduce their energy use and bills, get support with debt, access benefits and financial support, and secure funding for energy efficient home improvements.
The strategy is to support households in crisis, in fuel poverty, and those just about managing as well as low income households doing their bit.
We are particularly keen to raise the profile of the project amongst people who represent communities at risk of being overlooked or left behind.
During December there were over 5000 new users to the website www.takechargetoday.co.uk
We are asking our North West partners to promote and amplify the campaign with their members/within their communities to help reach as wide an audience as possible.
Get in touch with jill.hendry@enwl.co.uk for more information or for literature to help your organisation spread the word of this fabulous project with the potential to make a significant difference to many households across the North West.
Coming soon:
Electricity North West are starting a free advisory service providing useful information and advice to help households make informed decisions about; Electric Vehicles, Solar Panels, Smart Meters and LED Lighting. contact lowcarbonadvice@enwl.co.uk for more information.
Visit the Take Charge website today!
| | |  | | Electricity North West reshapes leadership team for net zero | | Electricity North West has strengthened its executive leadership team with two new strategic appointments.
Paul Killilea joins the organisation as asset and investment director. Dave Roberts joins as the new digital and technology director.
The two newly-created strategic roles complete a refresh of Electricity North West’s leadership team as the business continues to grow and invest, delivering a £2bn plan to ensure the region’s net zero ambitions are met.
Read the full article HERE. | | |  | | Regional Energy Strategy Planners – are you RESP-ready? | | In November 2023, Ofgem announced they would be creating ‘Regional Energy Strategic Planners’ (RESPs), to develop regional strategic energy plans across Britain. Local authorities will be a key part of the new arrangements.
Ofgem’s aim is to ensure that, by building regional plans based on local needs and other inputs, this will help ensure that electricity and gas/hydrogen networks invest in their infrastructure where and when local authorities need it.
We are currently providing briefings for our local authority partners. If you would like to arrange a briefing please contact stakeholder.engagement@enwl.co.uk | | | | Funding bids & support for project development | |  | Are you bidding for funding? Will your project need a connection to our network? Support is available to help shape your project and ensure you get the connection you need. For further information and contact details click HERE.
- Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme: phase 3c closed 10th November 2023; awaiting next phase
- Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: wave 2.2 deadline 31st January 2024
- Local EV Infrastructure: funding has been ringfenced to LAs; no hard deadlines to draw down
- Heat Networks:
| | |  | | Collaborating for net zero – new guide for local authorities and energy networks | | The Energy Networks Association have published a new guide with seven ways that local authorities and energy networks can work together to help achieve local net zero targets.
Including case studies from across the UK, the guide contains practical tips for those at the start of their LA/energy network relationship, through to those with years of collaboration under their belts. | | | | An Introduction to Community Energy 2024 webinar series | A series of webinars are running throughout 2024, with the aim of supporting potential applicants to the North West Community Energy Fund, and inspiring the development of further community energy projects across the North West.
The webinars are being run by the Centre for Sustainable Energy and CAG on behalf of the North West Net Zero Hub. Webinars will be focusing in on particular technical, financial and governance themes.
To find out more about the Community Energy Fund click HERE. | | | ENA Public Safety Conference - 24th April 2024 | Energy Networks Association is hosting its first ‘Public Safety Conference’. The first of its kind, we are looking to engage with wider industries, sector and third parties to raise awareness of Underground gas and electricity infrastructure and overhead powerlines and explore ways in which we can help reduce the number of people being avoidably injured from coming into contact with the energy network.
ENA is extending an invite to wider industries to discuss the ever present issue of striking underground electricity cables and gas pipes and coming into contact with overhead powerlines. We want to increase the promotion of key advice and to help promote the dissemination of key messages to support the reduction in the number of incidents and help keep people safe.
Register HERE. | | | Safe working near overhead powerlines – what you need to know | NFU, the voice of British farming, have created a new web page to provide advice on working safely near overhead powerlines.
Working directly underneath overhead powerlines (OHPLs) is a regular occurrence in agriculture and every year there are thousands of strikes, with some resulting in serious life-changing injuries or fatalities.
Read the full article HERE. | |
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