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NETWORK / 20 / JUNE 2017 W estern Power Distribution (WPD) has achieved its enviable reliability rates in the UK for its four licence areas through its Target 60 scheme. Target 60 entails sending three engineers to a fault no matter what the problem, and was designed to bring WPD's Midlands area (acquired in 2011 with the purchase of Central Networks) up to the reliability levels of its south-west and south Wales operating areas. This 'no ifs or buts' approach saw a virtual overnight transformation of the Midlands network from 60% of customers' power restored within an hour to 80%. Today No ifs or buts the West Midlands has the highest reliability rate of WPD's networks (around 90%), which makes it the most reliable service in the UK. The approach, coupled with more use of innovative algorithms and telecom connections on switches and substations, has made the company an industry leader. But WPD's ambitions do not stop there. The company is also committed to reducing the number of customers off supply for more than 12 hours (already at its lowest in WPD's history and lower than the previous 18-hour industry standard) by a further 20% over the course of RIIO-ED1. Here, Phil Swi", operations director at WPD, explains how the company managed to achieve this success. What is Target 60? It's the goal we set ourselves to deliver best performance for customers. It's about restoring supplies on our HV network within 60 minutes. The scheme is simple yet extremely effective. As an organisation our priority is to work safely and maximise customer service. If the power goes off, we are going to get it back on as soon as possible. It's important for us to deliver what the customer wants and the levels we have now, the stakeholders want to maintain. We are not looking for a transformational change because we have moved so far forward already. Our aim is to restore as many as we can as fast as we can; then we ask what the fault is and restore the remaining customers. How has it changed from being fault-focused to customer-focused? Our reason for being here is to service the customer, and if we focus on that everything else will click into place. Engineers have an interest in engineering and can be focused on that rather than what customers need at a certain point. How did you make the change to focus on customers (and restoring power) first and fault repair second? The historic approach was to start analysing the network problem ahead of getting customers back on supply. While engineering is important, our business is about serving our customers. The Target 60 initiative let us change the mindset within the business to 'restore first, fix second'. What was the biggest factor that led to the reliability levels rising? Previously in the Midlands, if there was a fault out of hours the normal practice was to send one person if there was a switch out in the network; even if they go as fast as they can, they will still be slow. Switch points can be miles apart in rural areas and we have a huge geographical area. Previously the engineer would do the switch, then find Phil Swift, operations director at Western Power Distribution, explains why the network has the highest reliability rates in the UK. IntervIew