Powering communities and keeping our colleagues and customers safe

Work needed to maintain network resilience and respond to urgent customer requests will continue wherever possible. However, we will look to postpone work that requires a planned power cut if deferring the work doesn’t impact network resilience in the near term. We will also put back plans for any non-urgent projects where the process of carrying out the work itself steps up the risk to our customer supplies whilst it is carried out.

Our field colleagues cannot work from home so we have ensured they're supported by robust working procedures to safeguard them.  Across our offices, wherever people can fully do their job from home, we've enabled this.  With low occupancy levels, we're protecting those colleague who have to come into work with strict social distancing and increased cleaning and hygiene routines across our sites.

We've restricted access to our Network Control and Dispatch areas so only colleagues who need to be present are given access and segregated teams to provide extra resilience to these key functions.

Our customers can continue to contact us 24/7 on social media (Facebook and Twitter @NorthPowergrid) or by calling 105.  Our website offers online support if you need to report a powercut or get updates about what’s happening to restore your supplies. 

Customers who may need extra support in a power cut due to their medical or personal circumstances are encouraged to join our free Priority Services Membership.

Supporting our frontline colleagues is key. We've issued health and safety instructions based on latest medical advice, to ensure they take appropriate precautions when responding or engaging with our customers and moving around the communities we serve. 

Customers are asked not to approach our teams unless it's an emergency - and always maintain a two-metre distance. Anyone suspected or confirmed coronavirus who needs an engineer to attend their property, must tell us before any potential visit so appropriate precautions can be taken.

Across our teams we are working with a range of stakeholders and are committed to keeping them informed. From government and the regulator, to local authorities, resilience forums, trade unions and other network operators, we will continue to work in partnership to support the UK response to COVID-19.

As an Energy Network Association member, we are supporting the industry response to keeping the power flowing across the UK.

Our experienced procurement and logistic teams are actively monitoring our supply chain.

This helps us make informed decisions so that we can ensure we have the necessary, equipment and resources available to support our operations, colleagues and customers.