Electricity network losses are an inevitable consequence of transferring energy across electricity networks and contribute a financial and environmental impact upon consumers.
Our networks are facing substantial challenges as they evolve to accommodate rapidly increasing levels of distributed generation. Furthermore, as the UK builds towards a low carbon future we anticipate increased numbers of electric vehicles and electric heating.
Effective losses management will play an increasingly important role to reduce the environmental impact and protect consumers from unnecessary increases to the costs they pay.
It would be prohibitively expensive and take several decades to replace our assets with lower loss alternatives. SP Energy Networks’ existing distribution systems are extensive and would cost over £17bn to replace like-for-like. We are presently targeting those assets which incur abnormally high levels of losses.
We envisage that the roll out of smart meters will bring opportunities to help us manage losses. The amount of energy that customers use and the timing of this also have a direct impact on network losses.
We are committed to better understanding and managing network losses, now and in the future, and have developed a vision to:
“Consider all reasonable measures which can be applied to reduce losses and adopt those measures which provide benefit for customers”