A responsible business

As a major player in the energy business, UK Power Networks has an important role in decarbonising the energy network and the economy. Our initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and support the Net Zero transition have most impact in the work we do for our customers.

Whether it is related to maintaining continuity of supply, ensuring we can accommodate greener power generation, or the connection of heat pumps or EV charging infrastructure, we have a pivotal role to play. Although our primary focus is on these areas, we nevertheless have an important obligation to address our own environmental impact alongside reducing that of our customers.

Our direct Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions from our day-to-day operations relate to fuel consumption, Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) gas leaks in our switch gear and the energy we purchase to run our substations, depots and offices. Since 2018/19 we have reduced these emissions by 19% and made good inroads in starting to tackle the difficult-to-abate sources of carbon.

An important part of our overall carbon footprint, however, is the Scope 3 indirect emissions associated with our supply chain. For most companies these are often the largest part of their footprint (around 80%), and are also the most difficult to measure and manage.

At UK Power Networks we recognise our influence on these indirect emissions and decided to tackle them head on. In partnership with our suppliers, we have set about identifying where these emissions sit across Scope 3 categories, and more importantly who our most material suppliers are.

Our initial screening exercises, using average spend-based carbon factors, enabled us to clearly see that our Scope 3 emissions were concentrated in Purchased Goods and Services and Capital Goods. We have over a thousand suppliers and could see that around 100 of them accounted for 80% of the Scope 3 emissions.

Working with our partner, the Minimum Consultancy, we have now completed more detailed assessments of our top 160 suppliers, so we have a better understanding of their contribution to our Scope 3 footprint. In addition, over the last year we have worked with our suppliers to adopt Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) validated carbon reduction targets and have developed bespoke carbon reduction plans for the goods and services with which they supply us. This has enabled us to measure these emissions more accurately and identify both carbon savings and opportunities for change. To date we have seen our Scope 3 emissions decrease by 19.6% from our baseline but there is more work to do.

In 2021, we were the first UK DNO to have our carbon reduction targets validated by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) for all carbon scopes, aiming for 'well-below 2°C' equivalent reduction (a 25% reduction from 2018/19 with a target year of 2028/29). In 2022/23, we committed to upgrading our Scope 1 and 2 targets to 1.5°C in recognition of the success we had achieved in the previous five years and these new upgraded near-term targets at 1.5°C, as well as a Net Zero target, have been validated by the SBTi.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Net Zero Standard provides companies with a clear blueprint on how to bring their Net Zero plans in line with the science. It requires companies to have short-term carbon reduction targets and a long-term Net Zero standard, with the ultimate aim of achieving a 90% reduction in emissions before 2050. The remaining 10% can be neutralised through high-quality carbon offsets that permanently remove and store these residual emissions.

Circular economy

We are committed to taking a sustainable approach to the management of our infrastructure in support of the nation’s progress towards a circular economy. For the second year UK Power Networks has submitted its data to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for assessment against the Circulytics criteria. We received an individual performance assessment which recognised that our efforts so far have resulted in an increase in our scoring, specifically in the ‘Enablers’ category. This marks a significant improvement in our approach to setting up the right conditions for a circular transition. Since the Circulytics toolkit is no longer available we are now on our way to developing our own tailored circular economy assessment tool to continue to monitor and measure our performance in this area.

Projects such as using low-carbon concrete made with waste materials, including fly ash where it is suitable, are part of our continued drive to eliminate waste and pollution, and to drive down carbon emissions. By adopting a circular economy model, we will help achieve a market in which products are re-designed to drive out waste, reduce the use of virgin materials, can be repaired, reused or dismantled for strategic spares and fed back into our large supply chain that we can influence positively.

Electrifying our fleet

UK Power Networks runs a fleet of over 3,100 vehicles, ranging from cars to vans and HGVs as well as specially modified vehicles required of an electricity network provider. We aim to have an integrated fleet that works throughout the company, and this year we have been doing the groundwork to enable that to happen. As well as making sure that the infrastructure is there to enable the uptake of EVs across the company, we must also ensure that the relevant support contracts are in place. This includes having procedures and policies set up in a way that will allow a streamlined and joined up vehicle fleet to operate smoothly and procuring practical solutions to make it easier for staff to change to an EV, such as partnering with a fuel card provider that covers both home and public charging costs. Our first priority was to identify the UK Power Networks’ employees whose role, duty cycle, business mileage and access to home charging made it appropriate for them to have an EV allocated to them. It was important to identify which roles required which type of vehicle; for example, a conventional passenger EV is likely to be right for a field engineer whereas a jointer needs a panel van sized EV. Alongside the contract work and with the help of our associated company UK Power Networks Services, we also began work on establishing the right infrastructure, such as charging facilities. The carbon emissions relating to the UK Power Networks’ vehicle fleet have reduced considerably since 2018 and this is in part a result of the introduction of EVs as well as the greater fuel efficiency of our conventional vehicles.

We want to encourage all employees to switch to EVs wherever possible so in 2023/24 we introduced a scheme to allow all employees to apply for an EV through our leasing partners, Tusker. Employees, including those who do not need a vehicle for their role, can opt to lease an EV or a hybrid vehicle. Tusker manages the administration and financing for the lease on our behalf.

Converting our in-house generators

Our temporary generator fleet is essential for maintaining continuity of electricity supply in both planned works and emergencies. We utilise both in-house and rented generators to meet our requirements and have been exploring opportunities to reduce the use of diesel. Clearly minimising use is the priority, but we have also trialled hybrid engines (battery with diesel engine) with low-carbon fuels.

Hybrid generators typically provide much better load management than diesel ones as they adapt and manage peaks and troughs of demand. Diesel generators tend to be highly inefficient compared to hybrid ones in cases of low demand, such as overnight.

In 2023/24, we began converting some of our in-house generators to hybrids and this will bring fuel efficiency benefits, improve air quality and reduce noise. The advantage of a hybrid engine is that it switches to battery during low load periods, such as at night when power demand is low.

Working to reduce sulphur hexafluoride on our network

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), a potent greenhouse gas (23,500 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide), is used across the electrical industry as the main method of insulation in high voltage electrical equipment. Our key actions are to engage in research to develop low-carbon alternatives and to improve our leak management.

Over the last two years, where appropriate, we have installed alternative low-carbon options, such as Clean Air, which utilises a mix of dehumidified oxygen and nitrogen and g3 which utilises a fluoronitrile for our 132kV switchgear. At the 36kV level, we have installed Air Plus circuit breakers, which also utilise fluorinitrile compounds in a different gas mix to g3. We also continue to engage on research with our partner bodies such as the Energy Network Association who are currently working with Nuventura on their new 33kV dry air circuit breakers.

The management of leaks is a vital part of our work in minimising SF6 fugitive emissions. We have piloted a new adhesive-based leak sealing solution for one of our 132kV circuit breakers. This has been developed in conjunction with the Electric Power Research Institute and has proved successful. We subsequently used it to successfully repair a significant leak on a busbar at one of our 11kV primary substations.

Biodiversity

Alongside the strategic, technical approach to protecting the environment, we also take care of the local flora and fauna in our area of operation. Biodiversity is crucial to the health of the planet, and projects such as helping to install nest boxes for swifts and kestrels in West Sussex and rescuing and re-siting a wild bee colony from the walls of a substation in Norfolk contribute to it. When we were cutting back trees in Surrey, our contractors were careful to preserve low undergrowth where possible, to maintain the leafy corridors used by dormice, and the scrub was kept, providing dappled shade for fly orchids.

This year, 27 employees volunteered to work on improving the biodiversity at our Addington Grid site. This large site is in a semi-rural location in Croydon and is quite unusual as a large proportion of this secured site is made up of ancient woodland and chalk grassland, both of which are now rare habitats that should be preserved in the UK.

With repeat visits from volunteers the condition of this land is changing for the better. The woodland has been improved by tackling invasive species on site and the chalk grassland, that was heavily overgrown, is being restored by scraping back the topsoil and reseeding with a specific chalk grassland seed mix. Chalk grassland scrapes are well known for attracting and supporting a remarkable array of butterfly and moth species, as well as other wildlife.