Utility Week

24 | MAY 2022 | UTILITY WEEK Electricity distribution Download report Weathering the storm A new report from Utility Week and HCL examines how DNOs can best use technology to boost their response to future extreme weather events. L ast November, Storm Arwen brought severe winds across the UK, impact- ing critical infrastructure including the electricity network. The extreme weather conditions saw the Met Office issue a rare red warning for wind on the east coast of Scot- land and northeast England, with people urged to avoid travelling. Arwen battered the UK with 98mph winds that caused extensive damage and led to the most significant mass outage in decades, with almost one million homes losing power. While damage to the electricity network had been anticipated, few could have predicted that around 3,000 customers would remain off supply for a week, or longer in some cases. Ofgem swi‡ly ordered a review into the networks' response, as well as secur- ing agreement from network companies to remove the limit to compensation for those affected by the storm. Just months later, on 17 February, Ofgem published its interim report based on the review to date. The findings made for rather timely reading as parts of the country were again tackling the impact of extreme weather in the face of a trio of storms – Eunice, Dud- ley and Franklin. According to the interim report, dis- tribution network operators (DNOs) have acknowledged that the duration and the severity of Storm Arwen impacted the length of time it took to be able to get staff in place to either repair or provide an assessment of damage, which significantly hampered the initial response. Damage to telecommunications networks resulted in some staff not being able to report damage they had assessed or to receive switching instructions. In some instances, DNOs reported that staff had to drive up to an hour each way from the work site to gain a mobile signal. During this time, some networks also struggled to keep up with call volumes, while the difficulties of connecting call centre staff to field operatives in remote locations led to complaints regarding customers being given inaccurate information about when they would be reconnected. While the regulator's inquiry is ongoing, DNOs are already committed to increasing their resilience against extreme weather and streamlining the processes for responding. Technology will undoubtedly play a cen- tral role in enabling field forces to provide timely updates to front-office staff, while also ensuring affected customers are kept updated as faults are resolved. But what are the main challenges facing DNOs as they seek to improve network resilience through effective communication channels during and a‡er extreme weather? How can innova- tion help to resolve these issues and what are the potential barriers to the adoption of new technologies? To explore how networks are respond- ing to this complex challenge, Utility Week partnered with HCL Technologies, a multi- national IT services and consulting com- pany, and HCL Volt MX, an industry-leading low code development platform, to conduct in-depth research with industry leaders. This report seeks to delve into the lessons learnt from previous extreme weather events and how this is shaping DNOs' approach to incident management and the role technol- ogy will have in evolving these processes going forward. Learning critical lessons Sarah Rigby, innovation project manager at Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), believes the resilience challenges facing DNOs have become "very evident" fol- lowing the impact of recent extreme weather events, particularly in remote and rural areas that can experience a higher than typical number of power cuts. She explains that this is as a result of high levels of forestation as well as these networks tending to be served by longer overhead lines or by single feeders. This is usually because the construction of a second line across such a distance would require significant investment and could result in unacceptable visual intrusion in a rural landscape. "Each of these aspects can make the net- works more susceptible to faults and more

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