Dear Colleague,
Government review into Storm Arwen response
I am extremely grateful to the thousands of engineers, volunteers, Armed Forces personnel and emergency responders who worked tirelessly to get nearly one million people reconnected to power following Storm Arwen. They did so with unbelievable professionalism in the face of one of the most extreme weather events in recent years.
While I am pleased all affected customers are now back online, it is completely unacceptable so many were left without power for so long. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify and resolve a number of issues which came to light during the Storm Arwen response, and the Secretary of State has commissioned a review.
The review will identify any issues with, and make recommendations for, improving the resilience of electricity networks in Great Britain. It will also look at the timeliness and content of public communications by Distribution Network Operators during the incident, support offered to vulnerable customers and their responsiveness in providing compensation.
Yesterday morning we published the Terms of Reference on Gov.uk and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/storm-arwen-electricity-dist…
It will focus on three pillars:
1. SystemResilience
2. ProtectingCustomers
3. Additional Response Support
The regulator, Ofgem has also launched its own review looking at how each individual network operator performed against the legal standards they are required to. Where they did not meet these, Ofgem will consider if appropriate enforcement action needs to be taken against them.
The review comes after the Secretary of State wrote to network companies earlier this week, setting expectations to deliver compensation to affected customers without
delay, to proactively notify them of their eligibility, to simplify the application process, and to investigate where appropriate other discretionary compensation.
My Department will look to deliver an interim report at the end of January 2022, and the full report at the end of March 2022.
I would be grateful to hear any thoughts you have as the department undertakes this review to make sure that we are more resilient to future weather events.
