Planning 4 Success

01/12/2008

As National Grid enters an unprecedented period of capital expenditure in renewing the electricity network, the way work is being planned for the future has also had to change. To manage our maintenance requirements, the demands of a large, complex capital investment plan and integrate the needs of our customers, the necessity to plan over longer timescales has been recognised as the key to success.

The ‘Planning 4 Success’ project has been set up to develop new processes and tools to produce a deliverable resource plan for all our construction and maintenance commitments up to seven years ahead. Our customers’ work forms a key element of this process and it is vital that we can represent customer work plans and resource requirements in these advanced timescales. The inclusion of estimated work plans significantly aids the placement of work, resource planning and the identification of future manpower needs.

In support of these changes, we now request an indication of future work as part of our annual outage maintenance confirmation programme. Where you have provided an estimate of future work in this way, it has been invaluable in delivering a more robust work plan and in helping us to meet these future challenges.