Being able to rely on a constant supply of gas and electricity is critical to society and we work hard on our reliability. This year especially, with widespread flooding in the UK, we have also had to battle against severe weather conditions.

In south west England, our engineers worked closely with representatives from the Army, Royal Navy and emergency services to build up flood defences with sandbags and barriers and to pump out water, protecting one of our substations from the rising water and maintaining power supplies to the region. In north west England, one of our technicians crossed a flooded road to deliver insulin to a diabetic child trapped in a nursery. Another was approached by a lady concerned about her husband who was receiving dialysis. The area’s power supply had been lost due to the rising water, so he used his van’s onboard electricity to power the dialysis machine. The professionalism and personal commitment of our employees was recognised when six received MBEs in the Queen’s Honours list for their services over the period. This echoed the thanks and praise we received from members of the public and UK government officials.