Power Protect aims to support most vulnerable customers by providing a portable power supply in planned and unplanned outage scenarios where these customers are off supply for an extended period of time. The project will develop and trial a proactive identification of vulnerable customers tool, an automated support offering system as well as a batteries dispatching tool and forecasting process in order to increase our customer safety, reduce operational cost during power outage restoration and ultimately deliver benefits to our customers.
Benefits
The project aims to give additional support for Customers who are medically dependent on electrical equipment by providing a faster response to their needs in the event of a power cut, reducing the risk to their health and their comfort.
Learnings
Outcomes
Reports from the research in Work Package 1 conducted by RIDC are published on the UK Power Networks website: New tab (ukpowernetworks.co.uk)
The customers involved with the trial gave overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 77% of customers telling us it was a 10/10 service. One of the key points of feedback where customers did not feel they received a 10/10 service was around the wait time before being offered a battery. The trial operated Monday-Friday during business hours. However, there are plans to roll the service out across all of UK Power Networks on a 24/7 basis, which will address this feedback.
We received a 5* Trustpilot review from one happy customer in August 2023. UK Power Networks reviewed by Mr Anthony Green on 21/08/2023 (trustpilot.com)
Lessons Learnt
The key lessons related to Work Package 1 (Customer research and engagement) are as follows:
Many of the customers self-reported that they live in a household that depends on electricity for medical reasons. The majority of these homes have devices that are not listed under PSR needs codes 1-4. Devices such as careline/personal alarm systems and assistive aids (such as adjustable beds and mobility aids) were the most common devices outside of the PSR needs codes 1-4 definition.
In the majority of cases, apnoea monitors and ventilators are only used at night when customers are asleep. In the case of daytime outages, it is unlikely that receiving a backup battery would have a medical benefit to customers.
There are many other complex and intersecting disabilities that would benefit significantly from receiving a battery in a power cut, such as:
Other medical needs: Customers with personal alarm systems and sterilisation equipment told us that they either could not manage or would struggle to manage without them.
Assistive aids: Customers with other assistive aids such as stairlifts, adjustable beds and hoists also told us that they either could not manage or would struggle to manage without them.
Non-medical devices: Customers with various mobility, dexterity, visual and cognitive disabilities reported that the most essential non-medical devices for use in a power cut would be mobile phone chargers, fridges, internet routers and lamps.
Those with limited alternatives for assistive aids highlighted the importance of advanced warning, guidance and preparation in the event of a power cut.
In all questions posed to customers in research with the RiDC, there was a large variation in responses. It is not appropriate to generalise when it comes to customers with disabilities and medical vulnerabilities. Any service designed to provide enhanced support in a power cut situation must be flexible enough to tailor it to the customer.
The key lessons related to Work Package 2 (solution definition) are as follows:
It is unclear how large portable battery units conform to the wiring regulations, particularly BS7908 and the guidance in the IET Practitioner’s Guide to Temporary Power Systems. Expert advice has been sought from the IET. The project spoke to the author of the IET Practitioner’s guide. The following mitigations were be put in place to ensure customer safety:
The sets we use shall have a true 230V supply, with the Neutral and earth tied together
The sets will be used in conjunction with a Type A RCD. This can be in-built to the unit or plugged in at the outlet.
The sets and equipment should all be used inside.
The manufacturers must confirm that the batteries can be used to power medical equipment.
In practice, additional support devices such as standalone lighting, electric blankets and travel kettles were not desired or useful to customers in the trial. Additional support devices make the service more complex and resource-intensive to deliver, as their maintenance and stewardship must be included in the responsibility of service owners. Specifically with kettles and electric blankets, there are concerns regarding hygiene. Therefore, it was decided not to include these devices in the trial or eventual roll out. The intended use of the battery packs is to power customers’ essential medical equipment, and therefore additional support devices would distract from the intended use.
It is not good practice to leave a battery unit on charge indefinitely. It is an additional logistical burden to ask the teams managing the batteries to unplug units once they are charged. To get around this, additional smart timer plugs were purchased to support battery charging. These mean that a battery can be left physically plugged in but will only stay on charge for a predetermined amount of time.
Tracking battery location and status is a feature that would be valuable. However, many battery units do not have this functionality. A work-around was developed using off the shelf smart tracker tags.
The key lessons related to Work Package 3 (System and software development) are as follows:
On closer assessment, there was not a positive cost-benefit analysis to developing and deploying a standalone asset forecasting and tracking system.
Existing enterprise solutions were used successfully to support a new process for running the Power Protect service.
Key lessons related to Work Package 4 (Trial Operations) to date are as follows:
A dispatching process was developed using pre-existing tools and identifying a workflow that was acceptable to the impacted roles. The key learning was that pre-existing tools and roles were suitable for delivering this service – major changes to the status quo were not required. This is driven in part by the fact that we are only offering this service to medically dependant PSR customers. These customers represent roughly 1.5% of all customers served by UK Power Networks.
The existing work processes to manage faults and planned power cuts are very different. Therefore, different workflows and customer journeys are required for the implementation of the Power Protect service across these two different applications.
We learned that some battery units have a standard power saving feature where they go into standby mode after one hour if the consumption has been below 20W. This can be altered in the settings. This had a negative impact on some customers whose medical equipment was used infrequently (such as a medical bed).