With a simple flick of a switch, your lights go on or your kettle is set to boil.
We turn things on all day every day without thinking too much about it, but a mammoth operation goes into ensuring millions of homes and businesses across the country have the power to do so.
And the demand for electricity is ever-increasing as households operate multiple technological devices and turn to greener energy with electric vehicles that can be charged from their own driveways.
“It’s ‘I want power and I want it now’,” as Johnathan Eggleston puts it, who oversees the Electricity North West operation in Cumbria.
“There wasn’t the customer expectation that there is today when compared to 20 years ago and we try to drive that.
“If there is a power outage, we need to be telling customers when we’re back on, telling them why, what we’re doing to reinforce the network and the benefits.”
The Mirror spent the day with Jonathan and a few of his team to learn about how they protect and enhance the network across the North West region - from the beautiful Lake District to bustling Manchester - and the lengths workers go to.
There are multiple different teams made up of 2,000 staff that work behind the scenes to clear lines, respond to incidents, and maintain and upgrade 13,000 km of overhead power lines and more than 44,000km of underground electricity cables.
But over the years they’ve gotten even savvier to cope with the amount of electricity we use by investing in smart technology.
One project called CLASS can recognise demand on the network at peak times and automate transformers to balance out the voltage load to reduce it - and they say this could save customers around £100 million over the next 25 years.
During the initial 12-month trial period affecting almost half a million people, detailed research showed that customers didn’t notice any change in their electricity supply - and it has since been rolled out nationally by Ofgem.
A subtle change might be during peak time after work when a customer goes to turn on their kettle - without them realising, it could take an extra 10 seconds to boil as the voltage is lowered.
“If everyone starts putting in EV (electrical vehicle) chargers tomorrow, we’d have a real problem on our hands,” Jonathan continued. “It’s about getting it to work smarter.”
He says demand for electricity is set to increase by around 30 per cent in 2030 - which is mostly driven by the Government’s Net Zero targets, with the driving force to achieve it being electrification.
In recent times, they’ve already seen a rise in wind farms, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging stations - with them expecting a whopping 1.4million on the North West roads by 2030 compared to just 25,000 today.
While their priority is to keep the network running, it’s also to reinforce it to make it resilient enough to withstand the demand going forward.
But will the increase in supply mean an increase in costs?
The price of energy bills has been on everyone’s lips the past year as Brits have been faced with astronomical rises - electricity prices in the UK rose by 66.7 per cent and gas prices by 129.4 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023.
As a DNO (Distribution Network Operator), ENW say the cost of energy has “nothing to do with them”.
They take the electricity from National Grid - the FTSE 100 monopoly charged with running most of the UK’s power grids that saw a jump in annual profits to almost £4.6bn - while the cost of our energy lies with Ofgem - the government regulator for the electricity markets in Great Britain.
Regardless of who you pay your energy to, whether it be British Gas or Octopus, ENW, along with other DNOs across the UK, take a percentage from that bill.
For ENW, it makes up around 30p a day, and £100 a year.
They also get funding from Ofgem for their performance, with incentives to hit customer satisfaction targets.
“We don’t dictate the prices… we’re in a regulated market and don’t decide how much it should cost," the 40-year-old asserts.
"We have no say but we do everything we can do to keep our section of the bill as low as we can."
Following concerns over the effect of a proposed 80 per cent increase in energy prices, then Prime Minister Liz Truss announced that the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) would be introduced from October 1, 2022 and last two years.
According to a report published this week by the Government, wholesale energy prices have fallen from their summer 2022 peaks, but there is a substantial lag before these feed through to consumers.
The latest price cap forecasts show it falling to well below the EPG level in the second half of 2023. This would result in cuts in household bills as prices are capped by whichever is lower, the EPG or the price cap rate.
However forecasts of the price cap are uncertain so there is no guarantee that prices will fall in July.
So what does that 30p a day get you?
A big issue for ENW in their patch is vegetation with heaps of countryside and scenic spots.
They have a rolling inspection programme that monitors the land, which analyses the condition of trees near overhead lines, how close they are, the condition of poles and danger signs.
I get suited up into my arc flash overalls, plastic glasses, hard hat, heavy boots and insulating gloves and join a team on a site in Lancaster.
When we arrive, the men are busy cutting back a bunch of trees that were identified in the mapping survey to have been growing too close to the 11,000-volt line - which if neglected, could cause the line to trip out.
There’s a chainsaw at the ready, a woodchipper chugging away, and two men are chopping at the greenery using a long insulated rod.
But so that customers aren’t affected by the work, they’re carrying out the cutting live.
A string of steps must be taken before they even venture onto the site, including staff briefings and assessments.
“Safety is at the forefront of absolutely everything - it’s a high-risk job,” Jonathan says.
“It doesn’t look dangerous but it’s important to have briefings so everyone is clear on the job.
“No one is allowed to work on the network unless they’re fully trained and experienced to do that.
“We do a lot of live work which is why we have the visors, insulated gloves, arc flash PPE.
“You need to know the hazards, you need authorisation for the wood chipper - there is a mound of authorisation steps to get to where those guys are today where you’re cutting near the live network.”
The workers know all too well about the destruction that can be caused by the natural elements.
Storm Arwen in 2021 devastated the area overnight - where 93,000 properties lost power across the North West after winds reached 74mph and tens of thousands of trees came down, pulling down power lines and snapping electricity poles.
The company restored 18,000 properties automatically within three minutes and over 600 engineers battled the blizzard to restore 90 per cent of customers within 48 hours, despite continuing winds.
The team follows a military-like operation when it comes to preparing for bad weather, which starts at 6am when Jonathan receives a report from the Met Office.
He assigns a severity level to the upcoming incident and looks at whether to double or treble the response resource.
Local incident centres are set up ready to restore affected customers’ power.
“It was incredibly difficult as it was so widespread,” Jonathan says, reflecting on Arwen - which is the worst aftermath they've had to deal with in recent times.
“It was a combination of high winds and it snowed badly. It impacted getting to places as well, trees had blown across main roads.
"We had to assess what was safe to send our engineers to - when it's 70mph winds in pitch darkness."
The control centre, located in Manchester, can visualise the network to help better facilitate teams on the ground.
As customers call in with complaints of an outage, they can build a better picture of how the network is affected and can make informed decisions about switching off areas of the network for the safety of the teams on site.
Aside from extreme weather, a range of causes can see faults to occur each day, from broken conductors, birds flying into the lines, digging and by other third parties such as farmers.
They’ll also closely monitor the weather forecast for big events and celebrations to make sure there is adequate standby staff in place.
But one day of the year that is always quiet is surprisingly Christmas, despite all the cooking that goes on in people's houses.
Looking ahead, a huge project ENW is steering is electrifying the diesel ferry in Windermere.
It plays a primary role in Cumbria Council’s aspirations to be Net Zero by 2037, with it being a £1million investment.
By the sounds of it, it’s been a balancing act to keep locals happy whilst the works have been going on.
As one of the busiest areas of the Lakes, they’ve tried to minimise disruption on the roads, and have worked with local businesses to navigate busy periods so there is still access for customers, such as on the bank holidays.
Gradually, they are digging up the ground to first place ducting, which will come to a close at the end of the month.
They’ll take a break over the summer as footfall and traffic to the tourist town intensifies before getting back to work in September to then lay the cable. Their part of the project is set to be complete by winter.
We meet John Wilkinson, who designed the scheme, at their latest digging spot, where 250m of cable has just been laid.
“It’s a high tourist area and the council is wanting to decarbonise the traffic coming in and out,” he tells me.
“It’s an ageing diesel ferry and to enable all of this to happen, we need to enhance our infrastructure there.”
The line will also supply electrical vehicle charging stations at car parks along the stretch.
Jonathan adds: “We are future-proofing the network for additional load, such as for service stations and additional car charges.
"It’s about getting on the front foot now before the demand rockets.”
Where would you like us to go behind the scenes? Please get in touch at nia.dalton@reachplc.com
