When a storm hits our network, we already know how we're going to react because we monitor the impending weather event days in advance and can have our colleagues at the very centre of the action, so they're ready to respond to everything the weather can throw at them.
But what about our customers? How do we make sure that they're ready, and when they feel at their most vulnerable in an adverse weather event, how do we show them that they're at the heart of everything we do?
If we look at our most recent weather event, Storm Doris, which made its presence felt most in the northern / uppermost areas of our central southern England network, we can track how we prepared our customers.
48 hours ahead - This is when SSEN starts to contact customers on its Priority Services Register (PSR). These customers may have registered with us some time ago, or they may have had a recent change in circumstance that has meant they would benefit from some additional assistance in the event of a power cut. Extra call centre staff are on hand to deal with the increased call volume and we draft in engineers, ready to go to the areas that we know will bear the brunt of the impending storm. Communications, including videos and guidance on what you can do to prepare for a power cut, are posted on the SSEN website and social media channels, along with details on how you can get in touch with us. Through these routes of communication, we encourage you to get your phones, tablets and laptops fully charged and to download our Power Track app to give you details of power cuts and restoration times.
During this time we will also be engaging with the other DNOs through an agreement called NEWSAC. This is an agreed process where we share resources with other to aid the restoration of supplies. We had enough resources to prepare for Storm Doris without the need for additional help - we were able to direct some contractor resource across to UKPN to help them restore supplies to its customers. We will continue to communicate with the other DNOs throughout the duration of a weather event.
12 hours ahead - Calls continue to be driven out from our contact centres to our PSR customers (for Storm Doris alone, over 7,000 calls were made in the run up to storm itself) and the additional staff needed to be on the ground to deal with possible damage to our network start moving into the locations that have been identified as being most likely to experience the storm's impact. Knowing that high winds can bring down trees or that some areas are prone to flooding, it's vital that we get our engineers in to these areas while it's safe to travel and roads aren't blocked. Along with engineers, mobile generation units are strategically positioned to help restore power quickly in the event of faults to the network. We update our SSEN website, our Facebook page and Twitter feed, and relay this information through news outlets, local and national, so we know we have covered as many channels of communication as possible. We've listened to how you like to hear your news, so we take that into account and use all of those platforms so you have the latest information in the format that suits you best. And it's through these platforms that we also promote the new, emergency 105 number to use if your power goes off, or if you see any damage to the electricity network. Our teams of Customer and Community Advisors liaise with local community resilience groups to share plans and assist communities in their preparation for any disruption, while encouraging anyone they meet in the community that they believe would benefit from the Priority Services Register to sign up.
In the eye of the storm - With engineers working to safely restore the power to any damaged areas of the network and our call centre staff taking and making calls round the clock, all of the preparation that was made earlier / two days ago now comes into its own and SSEN continues to feed information and advice to you through regular updates on our own channels and via the media, print, broadcast and online. Welfare vans dispensing hot food, hot drinks and charging facilities for mobile phones and tablets can be found in areas hit hard by the storm and our Customer and Community Advisors will often to go door-to-door to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our PSR customers. In severe weather events, our regular SSEN website switches to a Storm Live site providing rolling news as well as pulling in tweets and social media updates to create a one-stop shop for information, advise and storm updates. Our social media team provides a 24-hour service, linking in to the storm hashtag and responding to your tweets and facebook posts so you know you're always communication with a real person.
And as the storm recedes, we work to make sure that each and every one of you is back on supply. And once we have restored supplies we will spend the next few days ensuring all repairs are completed to ensure you have a safe and secure electricity supply.