Business Plan 2023-2028 Welcome to Our Plan Click Any Title Or Subtitle to Jump Directly to That Section
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Business plan 2023-2028 Welcome to our plan Click any title or subtitle to jump directly to that section. Our plan for a greener, more prosperous and more connected North West 4 Section 1: Welcome to our draft plan 6 1.1 A few words from our Chair 6 1.2 A few words from our CEO 7 1.3 How to navigate this plan 8 1.4 Updates to this document since our early draft consultation in April 8 Section 2: A summary of our plan 12 2.1 A network that’s fit for the future 12 2.2 Supporting community and local energy projects 13 2.3 Making sure no one is left behind 13 2.4 Improving customer service 14 2.5 Balancing bills with ambition 14 2.6 Financing 15 2.7 A summary of all our proposed outputs from the plan 15 Section 3: Why you can be sure we’ll deliver 21 3.1 Keeping our commitments 21 3.2 Delivering social obligations and customer service 22 3.3 Delivering reliability 24 3.4 Delivering on the environment 24 3.5 Delivering new connections 25 3.6 Innovation and continuous improvement 25 3.7 Being efficient and investing in the future 25 3.8 Our people 26 Front cover image: ©Science Museum Group/Drew Forsyth Section 4: Giving customers and Section 8: Activities to deliver stakeholders a stronger voice 32 customer outcomes 155 4.1 Setting up for success 33 8.1 Engaging with customers and 4.2 Our six-stage process 34 managing network activities 155 4.3 Our engagement methods 37 8.2 Maintaining and repairing the network 162 4.4 Why you can trust our robust and 8.3 Investing in the network 163 high-quality engagement 49 8.4 Running an efficient company 170 4.5 How feedback shaped the plan 51 8.5 Performing our other business 4.6 Building on our engagement for E D 2 59 functions 171 Section 5: What we’ll deliver based Section 9: Overall expenditure on what you’ve told us 61 forecasts 174 5.1 Meeting the needs of customers and 9.1 Summary cost breakdown 174 network users 61 9.2 Engaging with customers and managing 5.2 Maintaining a safe and resilient network 72 network activities 176 5.3 Delivering an environmentally 9.3 Maintaining and repairing the network 179 sustainable network 89 9.4 Investing in the network 179 5.4 Diversity and inclusion 100 9.5 Running an efficient company 188 5.5 Consumer Value Proposition 101 9.6 Significant projects 188 Section 6: How we’ll enable Section 10: Regulatory detail 192 delivery 103 10.1 How we’ll deal with uncertainties 192 6.1 Enabling our customers and 10.2 Output mechanisms 197 stakeholders 103 6.2 Enabling our people and business 121 Glossary Section 7: Keeping bills low and financeability 135 7.1 The impact of our plan on bills 135 7.2 Running an efficient business 136 7.3 How we’ll deal with uncertainties 139 7.4 The role of finance 140 Our plan for a greener, more prosperous and more connected North West We know from speaking with thousands of our customers and stakeholders to develop this plan, that lots of different people are interested in what it says. Having engaged through a transparent process shaped by customer and stakeholder input for the past two years, there shouldn’t be any surprises. Ultimately, it’s our job to find the right balance between ambition, service delivery and ensuring it’s affordable for everyone. We’ve written this plan for customers and stakeholders, and it’s designed to AA accessibility standards1. So whether you’ve been involved in our engagement yet or not, we hope you find the right level of detail, explained clearly and simply, so you can continue to share your views with us. This is our draft plan and we will submit a final version of our plan to Ofgem on 1 December 2021. 1 https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG2AA-Conformance In section 1 1.1 A few words from our Chair 6 1.2 A few words from our CEO 7 Welcome to 1.3 How to navigate this plan 8 our draft plan 1.4 Updates to this document since our early draft consultation in April 8 Jump to contents: this section document Section 1: Welcome to our draft plan 1.1 A few words from our Chair I am excited about this plan. This is an ambitious plan built from extensive high quality and robust engagement that as a board we have seen first‑hand. Despite the huge disruption to both home and work life caused by Covid-19, engagement to develop this plan never stopped. I am thankful to the thousands of customers and stakeholders who took part for their continued and enthusiastic involvement. This is a critical plan at a critical time for the region and country in terms of delivering on the Net Zero promises made by government and local political leaders in the North West. The plan also contains bold commitments on customer service, reliability and environmental issues. While we need to ensure the network is ready for the 1 million electric vehicles expected on the region’s roads by 2028, we also recognise the need to support those in vulnerable circumstances who are more reliant on electricity than ever. At the same time we need to use expertise to deliver technical solutions such as distribution system operation and flexibility. All while keeping bills low. The attention to detail in understanding the views of customers and stakeholders to develop a plan that balances the many competing needs of a whole region is no small achievement. Delivering that plan for ‘less than the cost of a cup of coffee’ – as one of our deliberative panel members put it – shows real determination, ambition and sound management of the process, outputs and, crucially, financing. This ambitious plan is thoroughly evidenced by customer and stakeholder support. It is not constrained by lack of ambition or lack of outputs. If it is constrained by anything it is constrained simply by what is practical and economically viable to deliver in the five-year window of the plan. Delivering a plan of this magnitude, meeting the needs of the region up to 2028, for such a low increase in bills is a significant achievement and I look forward to seeing it delivered on behalf of the North West’s customers, consumers and stakeholders. For more information, see our interim board assurance statement1. Alistair Buchanan CBE Chair Electricity North West 1. https://www.enwl.co.uk/globalassets/about-us/regulatory-information/ riio2/july-2021-submission/interim-board-statement/interim-board- statement-july-2021.pdf 6 Jump to contents: this section document 1. Welcome to our draft plan to Welcome 1. 1.2 A few words from our CEO Welcome to this latest draft of our business plan which is as close to final as possible at this stage. Publishing an early draft of this plan in April was a new and important step for us and as one of only two network operators to take this early step, we have benefited from thorough scrutiny from our customers, stakeholders and our independent Customer Engagement Group. As a result of our early draft consultation we have increased the ambition on five areas of the plan, which you can read about in section 1.4. The plan has been informed by more than 22,000 interactions with more than 18,000 customers, consumers and stakeholders to date, including 281 individual stakeholder organisations – by far the largest and most far-reaching consultation exercise we have ever carried out. Our proposals are detailed and offer an exciting and ambitious vision for our region. Our customers and stakeholders clearly value the excellent services we currently deliver and want us to do more – a lot more. The challenge of delivering stretching environmental ambitions on Net Zero while keeping bills low and making sure we don’t leave anyone behind is tough. You’ll see how we have made these trade-offs based on feedback in section 4.5. Our research has shown that 80% of customers are willing to pay an additional £9.80 to achieve the ambitious proposals in this plan. However, through innovation and efficiencies we believe that we can deliver a high level of investment in the network for just a £2.03 per year addition to an average household bill – a price 97% of our customers are willing to pay. You can read more on how we’re keeping customers’ bills as low as possible in section 7. Here we also set out how we can also ensure that our business is sustainable and set on a firm financial footing to ensure we can attract the big investment required to meet the big ambitions of our customers and stakeholders. There is still time for you to share your thoughts with us before our final submission to Ofgem on 1 December 2021, so please see our separate consultation document and do comment on any part of the plan that you wish. We take all feedback on board and work transparently to show how we use it to improve our plans together for everyone. Peter Emery Chief Executive Officer Electricity North West 7 Jump to contents: this section document 1.3 How to navigate this plan We don’t expect everyone to have the time to read the entire plan in detail, but we suggest you start with our summary in section 2 to give you an overview of key areas.