Understanding the impact of climate change to maintain a resilient network

To ensure we can continue to deliver for our customers and communities, we need to understand the impact of extreme weather on critical infrastructure today and in the future. Over the years, to improve decision making and mitigate risks, we have collaborated across the industry to understand the impact of climate change on power supply disruptions, and the knock-on impact of those power cuts on other critical infrastructure. Through this work we gained key insights into the climate resilience of the energy sector. This identified the need for tools that go beyond traditional planning approaches, and the lack of data to inform asset behaviour models under extreme heat conditions without expert input.

 

We have developed a platform that uses digital twin technology to help safeguard infrastructure networks against the impacts of climate change. By creating virtual replicas of assets and combining historic and predictive data, we can simulate how systems like power lines would perform during extreme weather. Through bringing together data from electricity, water, gas, and telecoms to map interdependencies and identify shared risks, we can make smarter investment decisions and build long-term resilience across sectors.

Building on this, we are continuing to collaborate to enhance the digital twin platform through the CReDO+ (Climate Resilience Decision Optimiser) project. We are engaging with a range of stakeholders to inform development and ensure the solution meets the needs of users across the energy sector and beyond. Our goal is to ensure that the platform can be adopted by organisations and regulators to efficiently plan, measure, and report on resilience as we approach the next price control period.

 

Through the CReDO+ project, we anticipate the following impact:

• Greater understanding of how infrastructure networks are connected and where risks lie, helping us plan and ensure a more resilient electricity supply
• Strengthened coordination across sectors to target resilience measures more effectively, reducing disruption and costs
• Practical tools to guide strategic investment and long-term planning, minimising climate related impacts on the electricity network and other infrastructure
• Enhancements to the existing CReDO platform to support consistent resilience measurement and reporting, key for regulatory compliance and long-term planning.