WPD cuts supply interruption time by 49%

Western Power Distribution (WPD) has cut the average time its customers are without power by 49% on the level in 2011/12, beating its target of 23% set by Ofgem for the entire eight-year price control period.

28th November 2016 by Networks

WPD cuts supply interruption time by 49%

In its performance report for 2015-16 WPD has revealed that it has met and exceeded a number of targets set by Ofgem in its RIIO-ED1 price control across important areas such as resilience, connections and customer service.

Customer interruptions have reduced by 27% on 2011-12 levels. The target is 16% over the price control period.

WPD said 89.16% of customers were restored within one hour of an HV fault, beating its annual target of 85% of customers.

Only 57 customers were off supply for more than 12 hours – a 99% improvement on the company’s 2012-13 benchmark figures.

The DNO also beat its connection targets in 15 of 16 categories, and is the top performing DNO for the connections customer survey in Ofgem’s broad measure of customer satisfaction, achieving an average of 8.74 out of 10 cross its licence areas.

WPD achieved the top four scores for overall customer satisfaction – a weighted amalgamation of results of the three surveys for supply interruptions, connections and general enquiries.

The company’s expenditure for 2015-15 was 2% higher than Totex allowances for costs within the control period. It is due to spend £7.1 billion through the price control mechanism over the eight-year period.