How we're maximising digital
Digital technology is revolutionising our world. We're determined to be leaders in our industry and use the most advance systems possible to better serve our customers.
Each year we publish several documents to report on our strategy, action plans and principles. We're committed to publishing regular, annual updates to help customers and stakeholders understand our direction of travel. Industry users can also use the documents to help shape their future plans.
We've recently published three documents in this area which you can view below: an update to our 2021 action plan covering the final six months of the year, our Digitalisation Strategy and Action Plan for 2022, and our Open Data Principles.
As always, we know there is more we can learn. Please let us know what you think by emailing us at digital@ukpowernetworks.co.uk
Our 2021 digitalisation strategy and action plan is customer and stakeholder focused and is designed to deliver on the needs of the communities, sectors and potential future collaborators we serve. It focuses on 4 user groups:
Customers: we are improving our customers’ experience by creating new online services that make it easier to connect and interact with us
Employees: our employees, who are all vital in delivering and improving our performance for customers, will be able to work anytime, anywhere and from any device in a coordinated, efficient way
Assets & Operations: we are embedding digital practices into the ways we capture, baseline and utilise our data to inform decision making. This means we’ll be able to innovate faster and be more collaborative to improve our performance
Smart Networks: new digital technologies and software are helping us to evolve into a Distribution System Operator (DSO), developing a future-ready network for a Net Zero carbon emissions world. Learn more about how we're building a smart grid on our Smart Grid site
There are three main terms in this area, but each mean a slightly different thing:
Digital technologies, such as a new customer-facing apps or new software that helps us run our network more efficiently, have huge benefits for customers. They are making it easier for our customers to connect with us and helping us improve our operational performance. They can also help save time and money.
The digital strategy will also help us improve on our core responsibilities as a Distribution Network Operator, focusing on reliability, safety, efficiency and customer service.
In short, yes. Major digital projects are already underway in our business, such as our software system for managing network resources which is helping us connect more low carbon renewable energy and chargers for electric vehicles. In this way, the digitalisation strategy and action plan will have a ‘multiplier effect’ as we develop a smarter network system that can achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Yes. Data is really important, because as an organisation we produce extremely large quantities of technical data on electricity power flows and asset performance. This data can be used to glean powerful insights that we can use to become more efficient and pass the benefits on to customers. As part of the new digitalisation strategy and action plan 2021 we’re making sure our data is stored safely, securely, engineered to the highest industry standard and used to its maximum potential for customers. Learn more on our Open Data page.