We distribute electricity to approximately 3.4 million customers in upstate New York and New England.

Responsibility

Restoring power to western New York
National Grid's aim is always to respond to major storms and natural disasters swiftly and effectively. In October 2006, a storm hit western New York State causing thousands of power lines to be damaged and resulting in 265,000 homes and businesses being without power. More than 4,000 of our employees, mutual aid crews and contractors worked around the clock to restore power. Supporting this team of workers involved serving 12,000 meals a day and providing 1,500 utility vehicles and 50 crew shuttle buses. Daily briefings with the community were established to ensure clear communication channels which enabled us to modify our restoration plans to meet the community's requirements and to ensure the safety of the repair crews and the public. These efforts, even under such difficult circumstances, ensured that power was restored to 98% of those affected within eight days. We have received many positive comments from customers, regulators, public officials and the media. We have also won recognition from the industry for our outstanding efforts in helping communities recover from the storm effects.

Reliability

Reliability Enhancement Program
A five year ‘Reliability Enhancement Program’ was started last year across the US service territory, with the aim of reducing the number and duration of outages on our network, as well as meeting the service quality standards in each of the states, where applicable. 2006/07 was the first full year of the programme with $150 million (£79 million) of work completed. This work involved: the replacement of more than 45,500 cutouts as well as replacing other critical assets; improvements to more than 1,300 miles of our overhead lines, through a range of actions including replacing poles and installing lightning protection; and the trimming or removal of trees adjacent to more than 10,000 miles of lines, where they were considered to pose a risk to reliability. Our employees have increased their engagement by focusing daily on reliability, finding more efficient ways of working, as well as developing new approaches to some tasks. This work has contributed to improved performance in both the frequency and duration of reportable outages.

Safety (Chairman's award winner)

New electrical operating procedure
We have introduced a new common operating procedure across Electricity Distribution that allows employees to isolate safely electrical equipment for maintenance. The aim of this change is to ensure employees feel confident they are carrying out their role correctly, regardless of location, and to provide a framework to achieve zero injuries every day. The procedure provides a consistent set of rules and practices, allowing employees to operate across the business. Employees from a wide range of departments came together to develop the processes. In addition to the documentation, a comprehensive training programme was developed and, over a period of 5 months, nearly 3,000 employees were trained, requiring either a 2 or 3 day course. To meet this intensive programme, more than 90 employees were trained as instructors and, at one point, simultaneous training was taking place at 15 different locations.

Efficiency

Floods
In June 2006, a severe flood hit the communities along the Mohawk River and East Canada Creek in the state of New York and some of our substations were flooded under more than 3 feet of water. This resulted in significant damage to 3 substations in the area and 9,800 customers being without power. The emergency recovery plan was put into force. Temporary substations were brought in to replace 2 of the damaged sites and temporary repairs were carried out at the 3rd. In addition, 2,500 feet of electric line was installed from the mobile substations to restore power. Helicopter patrols were used to monitor and assess the flood damage. Electricity was shut off to those areas affected by the flood due to safety concerns. Power was restored within 2 days, although some customers remained without power for longer as household repairs were required.