Our achievements

We achieved our highest ranking of 6th place on the 2021 Best Big Companies to Work For list. We have been ranked on the list which is produced by Best Companies based on employee surveys for the past seven years.

This year the company secured second place on Best Companies’ new Utilities’ sector Top 10 list, and on three regional lists including the Top Five Best Big Companies to work for in London.

UK Power Networks receive the Investors in People Platinum Award. This is an international standard awarded to just 1% of IiP-recognised organisations, showing that policies and practices around supporting employees are embedded throughout the business.

We also won the Discovering Potential Award for commitment to recruiting and developing employees.

Growing a new energy market which will benefit consumers, the environment and industry, won UK Power Networks the Disruptor Award at the Utility Week Awards. The company is growing the energy flexibility market for a low carbon future, making it more economical to use more low carbon energy and transport it to the electricity network. Flexibility represents a fundamental shift in how electricity networks operate. In just three years the company has helped grow this market from nothing to more than 120MW, worth £14million.

UK Power Networks demonstrated exceptional procurement delivery, to confirm its position within an elite worldwide group who have gained the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Corporate Certification advanced ‘Platinum’ award. It is one of only four organisations worldwide who have ever been awarded full marks across all 28 areas of the assessment.

UK Power Networks is the world’s leading utility in Smart Grids. Singapore-based SP Group, which produces the annual Smart Grid Index, placed UK Power Networks top of its study of 85 utilities across 37 countries in 2020. The Smart Grid Index measures the progress that utilities are making against seven key factors: customer satisfaction and environment; green energy; security; monitoring and control; data analytics; supply reliability and Distributed Energy Resources integration. UK Power Networks has been ranked first in the UK and Europe since the study began in 2018, but this was the first time it topped the global table.

In July 2020 UK Power Networks was named ‘Network Of The Year’ at the Network Awards, for its industry-leading performance throughout 2019. The company was nominated in six further categories and also won Stakeholder Engagement Initiative Of The Year for its team’s work on the 'Lifting Families out of Fuel Poverty' project.

Reducing emissions and engaging with staff and customers about lowering their carbon emissions, led UK Power Networks to become the first network operator to achieve the coveted Carbon Trust Standard for Carbon. Achieving certification in 2020 was a key step in the company’s Green Action Plan, as it seeks to minimise its impact on the environment and help communities reach ‘net zero’ in line with the UK government’s target of net zero emissions. The Carbon Trust’s Standard for Carbon is the world’s leading independent certification of an organisation’s achievements in managing and reducing its CO2e (greenhouse gas) emissions, recognising organisations that achieve year-on-year reductions.

Delivering quick and efficient roadworks across London earned us two top industry awards from the City of London’s Considerate Contractor Streetworks Scheme; a Gold Award for overall roadworks performance, and London streetworks manager Colin Smith won the Outstanding Individual Achievement Award.

In 2021 UK Power Networks which became the first distribution network operator to partner with the Levelling Up Goals initiative by former Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Justine Greening. The twin challenges of the economic recovery post-Covid and the UK’s acceleration towards net zero open up a new era for utilities taking greater responsibility for social mobility, by going above and beyond what people might expect. Levelling Up provides a clear benchmark, as the company plays its part in UK efforts to tackle social mobility, to make sure everyone has the same access and opportunities in life.

Work to recruit and retain a diverse workforce helped earn UK Power Networks a national accreditation, recognising best practice on equality, diversity and inclusion. Back in 2018 the company was the UK’s first electricity distributor to be awarded the National Equality Standard (NES), and it was re-accredited in 2020. It is also rated #3 in the Top 50 Inclusive Companies.