In surveys with 3,000 people across the region, and another 3,000 from across the rest of Great Britain, Electricity North West found that power cuts can have wildly varying social and financial impacts.
Thankfully power cuts are rare. On average, customers are without power in the North West once every three years for about an hour.
Electricity North West's engineering and technical director, Steve Cox, said: “We invest millions of pounds in the power network every year, and are proud to have one of the most reliable networks in the country here in the North West.
“Some people may never have experienced a power cut, but they can happen, due to bad weather, vandalism or other factors out of our control. And when they do, they affect people in different ways.
“We want to discover what we can do to help – if we can channel investment in particular areas, or improve our response to reduce the impact of power cuts on customers.”
The findings reveal the extent to which a power cut has different impacts on different types of people and how these are influenced by factors such as the season and time of day that the power cut occurs, its duration and how the distribution network operator responds.
The research shows a huge difference in the way customers value their electricity supply. The under 30s are among the least affected by a power cut whereas the groups most affected include those in vulnerable circumstances, particularly those struggling with fuel poverty.
Other highly impacted groups include young families and customers who run electric vehicles or heat their homes with electric heat pumps.
Understanding this impact – also known as the ‘value of lost load’ – is important as it is used across the electricity industry to guide investment decisions and the way customers are compensated after a power cut.
At present in Great Britain a single figure is used to provide an overall assessment of the value that domestic and business customers place on having a secure, reliable supply. This figure provides a financial estimate of consumers’ inconvenience and disruption during a power cut. It also provides a guide to how much the electricity industry should spend to ensure a reliable supply.
While the single estimate, which has been used for many years, values all customers equally, it also assumes that the impact of a power cut on one property is the same as any another. For example, the impact of a power cut affecting the home of a young working couple is valued the same as a nursing home with 100 medically-dependent residents.
A safe and reliable supply of electricity is becoming even more important as people move away from fossil fuels for heat and transport and adopt ‘low carbon technologies’ such as electric heat pumps and electric vehicles. The value we place on our electricity is likely to increase as these technologies become more commonplace.
Steve Cox added: “We understand that power cuts can be extremely disruptive and affect different customers in different ways. Loss of electricity supply can be costly, distressing or even life threatening for some customers who are dependent on electricity for medical or other needs.
“Given the importance of these findings we’re committing to carrying out further research to explore issues such as fairness, equity and the social implications of adopting an alternative, more sophisticated tool to evaluate the value of electricity, which recognises diverse customer needs and dependency.
“We’ll also look at how things like the length and scale of a power cut changes the impact on people.
“Our research demonstrates the need for a more sophisticated approach that will significantly improve efficient targeting of investment and ensure those investments are based on a much richer and more representative understanding of customers’ needs.
“We expect this study to be influential in how we support vulnerable customers and address fuel poverty.”
You can read a comprehensive report from the research at www.enwl.co.uk/voll.
