At our April meeting we reviewed NGN performance against all of its regulated outputs for the 4th year of this current price control period.
Whilst we had been monitoring delivery throughout the year, this was our opportunity to see what remains to be done in year 5 and what plans NGN has to ensure it can meet all of its targets.
The ISG were reassured that most areas are on track and by the end of 2025/6 the key targets will have been met relating to customer service and network resilience.
The one area where NGN will not meet its targets relates to the acquisition of electric vehicles for operational use. The ISG pushed NGN to be more ambitious in decarbonising its fleet when we reviewed the initial business plan for 2021-26, and whilst we are disappointed that the company has not been able to deliver on this, we have been kept informed of the barriers to purchasing electric vans that are deemed suitable for 1 and 2 hour emergency response times.
We have flagged this as a wider issue for Ofgem and the industry.
This month sees the ISG preparing our annual report which we hope to share on this website by the end of June. We have also undertaken a self appraisal exercise to assess the effectiveness of our work and its impact. A report on this will be appended to our annual report.
We have also presented the key points we made in our response to Ofgem’s Call for Evidence to a member of the Ofgem team that is responsible for assessing the GDN business plans for GD3. WE had the opportunity to set out the key points we would like Ofgem to take on board in reaching its determination on the plan.
There have been a number of deepdive sessions in recent weeks – a review of the data and digitalisation strategy, NGN’s annual Sustainability report, and NGN’s planned engagement with industrial and commercial customers.
All in all it has been a busy spring so far!
At our next full meeting in June at NGN’s Thorpe Park head office in Leeds we will be seeking evidence of how NGN is putting in place the new processes and plans for the delivery of its new business plan. With a number of new and enhanced programmes there is a build of work to be done.