Quality of Supply Report

1996/97

Contents
Message from the Managing Director, Power Systems Report Highlights Company Profile Quality of Supply Developments Company Targets System Performance 1996/97 Targeting Investments 1997/98 Capital Expenditure Analysis of System Performance 1996/97 Glossary of Terms How to Contact Us 2 3 3 4 10 11 17 19 22 23 25

A message from Alan Richardson, Managing Director, Power Systems

In this third Quality of Supply report we review the quality of supply we provided to our customers during the period 1 April 1996 to 31 March 1997 and include details of the improvements we will deliver to our customers by the year 2000. In the report we examine the past and future capital investments which are aimed at improving the quality of service experienced by customers. 1996/97 has been an eventful year in ScottishPower. Our area suffered from two of the worst storms that we can remember. On 6 November the south west of Scotland experienced one of the worst gale force storms for more than 20 years with wind gusts of more than 85 mph. Just four weeks later, the south of Scotland suffered from a snow and ice storm which caused massive disruption to the affected communities and caused the most damage to our network that we have ever experienced from a single event. Restoring supplies required the efforts of more than 1000 staff including 300 from our Manweb division and other contractors. All these staff displayed remarkable dedication to customer service in the most arduous conditions. The effects of this storm are discussed in this report. Our business strategy is to deliver continuous improvement in quality of supply and our target is to reduce ScottishPower Customer Minutes Lost (CML) per connected customer by around 20% from the 1991/92 levels by year 2000. We are well on the way to achieving this and we will continue to review these targets to ensure our customers receive the highest possible quality of supply. Customer service is our primary objective, this includes a strong commitment to improving the reliability of our network and the quality of supply provided to our customers through our investments in the distribution system. Much of this investment is targeted towards our customers who live in rural areas and is described in detail in this report. However we are upgrading our urban networks with programmes to refurbish buildings and replace switchgear as equipment reaches the end of its useful life. Our engineering group work closely with manufacturers, encouraging development of new equipment and technology to bring the best possible benefits to our customers, at still acceptable cost. At the time of preparing this Report we suffered a tragic accident which occurred on the evening of Tuesday 15 April 97 at Barrhead substation, south of Glasgow. Three of my staff were carrying out routine checks at the substation when an explosion occurred in a piece of 11,000 volt equipment. Two staff suffered fatal injuries and the third was seriously burned in the explosion. The entire company was deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic incident and a full inquiry is underway to identify the cause of the event. I know that all staff join me in extending my deepest sympathy to the families of those involved. This cruel reminder of the power and danger of electricity strengthens my resolve to ensure our network continues to be maintained to the highest safety and quality standards. If you have any questions or comments following your study of this report please contact the Regional Manager at your local regional office. Details of how to contact us can be found on page 25 of this report.

Report highlights
Underlying CML per connected customer down 6.7% on 1995/6 to 61.9. Two periods of exceptionally severe weather add 47% to supply hours lost due to all the remaining unplanned incidents in 1996/7. Investment in Outage-Free working methods which allow work on live 11,000 volt overhead lines have avoided around 60,000 customer supply interruptions. Total outage time caused by planned work reduced by 55% since 1992/3. First installation of insulated 11,000 volt overhead lines completed. As a result of the December 96 storm, stronger overhead line construction specification to be piloted during 97/8. New incident recording and customer monitoring system introduced in April 97.

Company profile
ScottishPower distributes electricity to more than 1.8 million customers in 23,000 square kilometres stretching from Newporton-Tay and Helensburgh in the north to Stranraer and Holy Island in the south. This geographical area comprises contrasting topography from the denselypopulated industrial and urban areas of the Clyde/Forth Valley to the exposed and sparsely-populated areas of the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. The map shows our four Regions and illustrates the differences in customer numbers and type of network used to provide supply.
Customers Overhead Network (km) Underground Network (km)
413,952 16,048km 573,777 12,359km 20,850km 675,983

CLYDE REGION

FORTH REGION

WESTERN REGION
13,823km

SOUTHERN REGION

140,353

Quality of supply development

Independent research, commissioned by ScottishPower during 1996, has shown that 84% of ScottishPower customers are either satisfied or very satisfied with the reliability of the supply they receive. This reflects the effort we have made to improve the service we provide. Customers also tell us that we should be easy to contact and should keep them informed when there are problems. We have therefore introduced our 24 hour call centre. The same research confirmed that reliability of supply remains a concern of customers and that when an incident does occur customers expect a prompt response. Short interruptions of a few seconds are inconvenient, although the majority of customers see them as being preferable to longer interruptions. This section describes some of the developments we are introducing to improve all aspects of our service and reliability and to address customer concerns.

Network Management
When an incident occurs on our network which disrupts the supply to customers, it is important that customers can contact us easily, advise us of their circumstances and obtain information about what action we are taking. Our Customer Service Centre now provides an improved 24 hour service, for customers to report problems with their supply on 0845 27 27 999. Calls to this Call Centre are dealt with quickly and efficiently to make sure that customers are given accurate up-to-date information. In January 1996, we opened a new Power Systems Management Centre (PSMC) in Hamilton at a cost of 5m to improve our efficiency and management of all incidents and planned work. Since then we have extended the system to our regional centres to allow us greater flexibility in managing our network. The PSMC includes a Control Room which uses a modern computerised network management system to control all network operations, and a Despatch Centre which provides dedicated staff to co-ordinate the activities of all our emergency staff. The duration of an outage depends on how quickly our field staff can rectify the problem, but more than 80% of our customers affected by incidents are now restored within three hours. To accelerate our supply restoration capacity we are investing 7m in distribution automation which will complete the fitting of remote control and alarm monitoring facilities at all 440 main substations. This work is on target to be completed by the end of 1998.
4

To improve our ability to accurately record incidents and identify those customers who suffer repeated interruptions to their supply, we are developing a new incident recording and customer monitoring system at a cost of more than 500,000. This system was implemented at the beginning of April 97 and will be enhanced during 1997 to improve our monitoring of the worst served areas.

Planned Work
ScottishPower and Manweb are leaders in the field of Outage-Free working and the Company integration has strengthened this experience. Special equipment and techniques have been developed to keep customers on supply while allowing us to conduct routine maintenance. This has resulted in a 55% drop in CML due to such planned interruptions, although we are conducting more maintenance. We now have 10 Outage-Free teams operating which have contributed to the significant reduction in CML shown on this graph.
Pre-Arranged CML per Connected Customer

Pre-Arranged CML
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 Pre-Arranged

92/3

93/4

94/5 Financial Year

95/6

96/7

Short Supply Interruptions

More than 60% of all incidents on 11kV overhead lines cause no damage to our equipment, providing the supply is disconnected quickly. Following the incident, the supply can usually be restored simply by re-energising the circuit. In the past, this required an engineer to visit the substation and close the switch manually which would typically have taken about one hour. We have invested in automatic pole mounted switches which can be programmed to re-energise the supplies. These pole mounted switches each control relatively small sections of our network to minimise the number of customers who are affected by a particular incident. Customers benefit by having their supply restored within a few seconds where in the past they would have typically been off for at least an hour.

Our market research tells us that customers see short-term interruptions to their supply as preferable to a longer time without supply. However we are aware that even a short interruption in supply is inconvenient. Modern electronic equipment often needs to be reset if it is unable to ride-through these short interruptions. Under European legislation manufacturers are working to make their equipment operate correctly during such supply interruptions. We aim to collect accurate statistics on the performance of our network and we are undertaking trials of equipment, similar to that shown here, which will provide us with the ability to monitor short-term interruptions. These Power Fail Monitors were installed last year as part of a programme to develop a reporting system. This work will continue during 1997/8 to ensure our information is accurate and reliable. Many circuits have measured no short interruptions and others have shown between 1 and 20 for the year. We wish to refine this work before reporting the results. We plan to provide an indication of the number of short term interruptions experienced by customers in our 1997/8 Quality of Supply Report.

Protection of Overhead Networks

During 1996/7 we continued installing our revised overhead line protection which uses electronic links, in conjunction with pole mounted automatic switches, to replace 11,000 volt fuses. These electronic links are more reliable than fuses during transient events such as lightning storms. The additional pole mounted switches help minimise the number of customers affected by permanent incidents.

Overhead Protection Applied to Dalbeattie Primary 93/4

Non-Damage Customer Hours Lost
5000

Percentage Damage/Non-Damage CHL

120

4000

100

80

3000

60

2000

40

1000

20

91/2

92/3

93/4

94/5

95/6

96/7

91/2

92/3

93/4

94/5

95/6

96/7

Damage

Non-Damage

An example of the benefits we obtain from this targeted investment is shown in the graph. This shows that following the application of our overhead line protection policy to the 11,000 volt lines out of Dalbeattie primary substation in 1993/4, the level of customer hours supply lost due to non-damage incidents has fallen to less than 3.5% of its 1993/4 level.

By the end of 1996/7 we had installed this equipment on more than 190 circuits. Some of those which benefited from this equipment during 1996/7 are indicated on page 16 of this report. This program will be completed during 1997/8 with a further 50 circuits being targeted.

Automation of Supply Restoration

Rural villages, often far from one of our 440 main substations, are supplied by an 11,000 volt overhead line. Incidents on these high voltage lines can result in the supply to the village being lost until staff arrive to isolate the incident and restore supplies. Many villages however, have an alternative supply available in the form of a second high voltage overhead line. We have an ongoing programme of installing new equipment to automate the restoration of supply. This system detects the loss of supply to the village and having checked that the incident is not within the village network, signals the electrically operated pole top switches, to operate and restore supply to the village. This takes 30 - 60 seconds. Already these schemes have avoided around 60,000 customer hours of supply loss, equivalent to two CML for the Company, by their operations. During 1997/8 we plan to install this equipment to benefit 10 villages in the ScottishPower area.
Leadhills Wanlockhead Dunscore Tweedsmuir Greenlaw Milton of Campsie Colinsburgh Crossford

Slamannan

Aberlady Coldingham

Gifford Pathhead

Gordon St Boswells

Generators
Live working on 11,000 volt overhead lines will substantially reduce pre-arranged interruptions to customers supplies but some tasks are not possible to safely complete on live lines. Similarly there are other types of high voltage equipment, such as cables, transformers and switchgear which are not suitable for live working techniques. In these situations it may be possible to use a generator to maintain supply to customers while working safely on equipment. We plan to increase our use of generators in this way. We have developed techniques which allow generators to be used at high voltage without even a short interruption of customers supplies to allow the generator to be disconnected. This approach will allow us to maintain supplies to groups of customers affected by our rural upgrading programme.

Overhead Line Reconstruction

Extreme weather events, such as the snow storm in the Borders on 3/4 December 1996 and a similar event in our Wales region of Manweb on 19 November, are unpredictable and cause enormous disruption to our network and to the local communities. Prolonged outages, often for several days, while we rebuild and repair the damaged poles and conductors are not compatible with the level of service we intend to offer our customers. Following these two such events an investigation was undertaken to identify what actions could be taken to minimise the impact of future extreme weather events. The investigation identified that, in general, the equipment which failed during the storms did so because it was stressed beyond its design limits by the combination of snow, ice and wind. It concluded that to reduce such equipment failures in similar severe storms it is necessary to build much stronger overhead lines than those which were constructed by the nationalised electricity companies. The bulk of lines in use today were constructed when electricity was expanded into rural areas in the 1950-1960's era. ScottishPower's policy to conduct a systematic refurbishment or rebuilding of overhead lines will continue. We have identified that around half of our overhead lines, supplying the most heavily populated areas, will be rebuilt to a much stronger specification. This programme will take many years to complete and we will seek agreement from OFFER for its future funding. We have begun this programme and propose concentrating our pilot schemes in our Borders area. Landowner permission together with planning authority approval is necessary for such work and this is proving ever more onerous. However, we will continue to pursue our policy of building stronger overhead lines to bring better supplies to rural communities.

Insulated Overhead Lines

Traditionally UK overhead lines, as in most other countries, have utilised bare wire construction. Although this has many advantages, particularly cost, it can experience transient damage due to gales, tree contact or bird strikes. We have completed our first pilot installation of insulated conductors, at Drummore near Stranraer, where 10.5km have been installed. The results of this pilot will allow us to finalise specifications and our future programme. We believe the selective use of insulated conductors will improve the reliability of our supply, particularly by reducing the short interruptions experienced by customers.

Power Quality Monitoring

Voltage dips occur on all power systems as a result of system incidents, e.g. cable damage, lightning strikes, etc. The increasing sophistication and sensitivity of computers, process control equipment and power electronics in recent years has increased the problem of equipment failure as a result of these voltage dips. Modern equipment should be designed to ride-through many of these disturbances and European legislation exists to guide equipment manufacturers in the types of power quality problems that may occur on a public supply system. Customers who rely on modern electronic devices should seek guidance from equipment suppliers on what voltage dips the equipment can ride-through and how it should be protected.
SP line BT line

Voltage dips particularly affect our major

Satellite clock

process and service industry customers who are concerned about losing many hours of production because of these

Display Station database

supply disturbances which last less than one second. The ScottishPower area has one of the highest concentrations of

NUMBER OF DIPS

semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Europe, for example 38% of all European

VO L R TA ET G A E IN ED

PCs are manufactured here, and we are addressing these customers' concerns by monitoring power quality. Our monitoring

DURATION

equipment produces power quality reports, showing the number, duration and severity of voltage depression, which we use to ensure we deliver high quality supplies and to assist customers in understanding their internal protection needs.
9

Company targets
Our strategic goal is to deliver excellent customer service and ensure a continuous improvement in the availability, reliability and security of supply. We have system performance targets to demonstrate this improvement, the most notable of which are: By 2000, to reduce total underlying CML per connected customer by 20% compared to 1991/2 to between 55 and 65 minutes. By 2000, to reduce total underlying customer interruptions to between 45 and 55 per 100 connected customers. By 2000, to target improvements to those customers who experience more than an average of three unplanned incidents in each separately protected section of HV network used to provide their supply. These company targets are consistent with regional performance in line with the tables below:

Availability
Customer Minutes Lost per Region Clyde Forth Western Southern connected customer by 2000 37-43 58-70 60-72 145-175

Security
Interruptions per 100 Region Clyde Forth Western Southern connected customers by 2000 32-36 55-65 47-55 105-125

This report shows that the underlying performance of our network is well on the way to achieving these targets. However, the unusually severe snow and ice storms of the previous two winters have masked the underlying improvement in our reported figures. We have described in this report the actions we are taking to achieve our targets and reduce the impact of future severe events. Through these efforts we expect the improvements to continue. We will however continue to review these targets to ensure our customers receive the highest possible quality of supply.

10

System performance 1996/7

(See also Tables 1-3 on page 22 of this report)

COMPANY SYSTEM PERFORMANCE Key Improvements

Underlying CML per connected customer down 6.7% on 1995/6 from 66.3 to 61.9. Customer Interruptions (CI) per 100 connected customers down 13% on 1995/6 from 65.5 to 57.0. Pre-arranged CML per connected customer down 38% on 1995/6 from 9.9 to 6.1. Investment in Outage-Free working methods which allow work on live 11,000 volt overhead lines have avoided around 60,000 customer supply interruptions.

1996/7 Extreme Weather

During 1996/7 the ScottishPower area suffered two short, but exceptionally severe, periods of bad weather which caused enormous disruption to local communities and to our network. This graph plots the number of HV and EHV incidents we experienced each day last year and the impact of these storms is clearly visible. Number of HV & EHV Incidents per day
400

300

3 & 4/12/96 Ice Storm 6/11/96 Gales

200

100

April 96

March 97

On the 6 November 1996 the Western region suffered from severe winds which gusted to more than 85 mph, amongst the worst for more than 20 years. These gales caused 188 incidents on our HV and EHV networks. On the 3 and 4 December 1996 southern Scotland was subjected to a severe snow and ice storm which caused extensive damage to our network. This caused 300 incidents on the HV and EHV systems and was centred on our Borders area as shown in the diagram overleaf. The damage caused to overhead lines by this storm was the worst that ScottishPower has ever experienced from a single event. The storm caused more than 400 wooden poles and steel towers to snap or buckle and conductors to break at 800 locations.
11

Stirling Edinburgh

Customer Hours Lost by Primary Substation

Kilmarnock

Key CHL > 50,000 20,000 50,000

Dumfries

5,000 20,000 2,500 5,000

The region's emergency plan was activated and at the peak of the storm more than 1000 staff, including 300 from Manweb and outside contractors were involved. Our contingency planning successfully allowed us to use these resources to restore the supplies to 40,000 customers affected by the storm. Despite all the efforts to restore supplies quickly during both these storms their combined effect was to add 26.7 CML to the company's performance, which represents 48% of the underlying CML performance for the whole year.

Availability
This graph clearly demonstrates the impact of the storms during 1996/7 which have been described earlier and which added 26.7 CML to the 1996/7 total. During 1995/6 severe lightning, wind and snow storms including the snow storm in Dumfries and Galloway during February, which triggered the Local Authority Emergency Plan, added 14.7 CML to the 1995/6 total. Availability
120 CML per Connected Customer 100 80 60 40 20 0

Total All Faults Pre-Arranged Target Weather Corrected

92/3

93/4

94/5

95/6 96/7 Financial Year

97/8

98/9

99/00

Over the past five years the underlying availability of supply due to unplanned interruptions, measured in CML, has improved by 33%. The underlying trend is shown in this graph by the 'weather corrected' line, which shows that we are on course to achieve our year 2000 target.

12

Security
Over the past five years the impact on security of supply from unplanned interruptions, measured in CI, has improved by 29%. The graph shows we are on course to achieve our year 2000 target. Security
CI per 100 Connected Customers 100 80 Total All Faults Pre-Arranged Target Weather Corrected 60

40

20

92/3

93/4

94/5

95/6 96/7 Financial Year

97/8

98/9

99/00

Quality of Service
As soon as we are aware that an incident has occurred which disrupts supply to customers we respond as quickly as possible. To help us monitor our speed of response we record the time it takes to restore supply to each customer and we have a target to restore 80% of supplies within three hours and 99% of supplies within 24 hours. During 1996/7 we exceeded both of these targets by restoring 80.6% of all supplies within three hours and 99.1% of all supplies within 24 hours.

Voltage Complaints
(See also Table 4 on page 22 of this report) Domestic customers make up the majority of our 1.8 million customers and receive their supply at 230V. European legislation requires this voltage to be between minus 6% (216.2V) and plus 10% (253V). We design our networks to maintain supply within this band under normal circumstances. However, due to increasing load on our network for example, customers may complain to us about voltage problems. Last year we investigated 1005 complaints, found 521 were valid and took action to rectify the problem. To ensure we rectify these problems quickly we have a target to rectify 95% of verified voltage complaints within six months. During 1996/7 we exceeded this target by rectifying 513 voltage complaints, equal to 98.5%, within six months.

13

REGIONAL SYSTEM PERFORMANCE Key Improvements

1.66 million or 92% of ScottishPowers 1.8 million customers experience supply security and availability better than the national average. All Regions achieve a minimum of 31% reduction in Pre-arranged CML between 1995/6 and 1996/7.

Availability
The vast majority of ScottishPowers' customers, 1.66 million or 92%, reside in either the Clyde, Forth or Western regions. These customers experience an availability of supply which is better than that received by the average customer in the UK.

Regional Unplanned CML

400 CML per Connected Customer 95/6 300 96/7 Storm Contribution 200

100

1995/6 National Average

Clyde

Forth

Western

Southern

The graph shows that the supply reliability of the remaining 140,000 ScottishPower customers, who reside in Southern region, is extremely dependent upon the weather. In 1996/7 the storms in November and December accounted for more than 70% of the total CML during the whole year. The underlying performance of the network in Southern region is close to the national average and the improvement due to our continued efforts and investment can be seen. As a result of the storms we have experienced, and their unacceptable impact on the performance of our network, we are taking action to construct overhead lines which are more resilient in extreme conditions. The work we are undertaking was described on page 8 of this report.

14

Security
In general, our rural customers are those who are least well served. This is demonstrated by the figures for our Southern region which serves predominantly rural communities. It is for this reason that the majority of our investments which are specifically aimed at improving the quality of the supply we provide, are targeted at our rural area. Again the impact of the storms is highlighted in the above figures together with the national average. It is clear that the vast majority of ScottishPower customers experience a supply reliability significantly better than the national average.

Regional Unplanned CI
CI per 100 Connected Customers 200 95/6 150 96/7 Storm Contribution 100 1995/6 National Average

50

Clyde

Forth

Western

Southern

Pre Arranged CML

The improvement due to our investments in Outage Free working, described earlier, can be seen in the graph with all regions showing a minimum of a 31% reduction in CML due to pre-arranged supply interruptions between 95/6 and 96/7. These latest improvements continue the downward trend since 93/4 when we started Outage Free working. Southern region have halved the supply minutes lost to our rural customers over this period.

Regional Pre-Arranged CML

100 CML per Connected Customer 93/4 94/5 60 95/6 96/7 40 80

20

Clyde

Forth

Western

Southern

15

UPDATE ON 1996/7 QOS CIRCUITS

In our Report last year we detailed a list of localities where we would be targeting quality of supply initiatives. The table below gives an update of progress on this work. It is too early to measure the effect of this work on these circuits but we fully expect the results to improve the regional performance statistics.
Region Forth Forth Forth Circuit Blackburn Menstrie Carberry Proposed Work Overhead line protection Overhead line protection Rebuild overhead line + protection 11kV rural automation Overhead line protection Insulated conductors Overhead line protection Rebuild overhead line + protection Update Completed Completion July 97 Almost complete, remainder by October 97 following cropping season Completed Completion July 97 Completed Completed Completed Completed Completion September 97

Forth Western Southern Southern Southern Southern Southern

Collingsburgh Pinwherry Barrhill Oakfield Torthorwald

Craig Port William Rebuild overhead line + protection St. Boswells 33kV primary automation

16

Targeting investments and getting results

Least Well Served Customers
Our target is to ensure that by the year 2000 we target improvements to those customers who experience more than an average of three unplanned HV incidents in each protection zone providing their supply. To ensure we can identify such customers we implemented a new incident recording and customer monitoring system in April 97 at a cost of more than 500,000. The chart shown here indicates that in 1996/7, 36.6% of all CML were due to high voltage overhead line incidents. The majority of the pre-arranged CML were also due to planned work on high voltage overhead lines. Whilst high voltage underground cables account for 24.2% of CML, this is spread over a larger number of customers who live in more densely-populated areas. The impact on individual customers is therefore much smaller. We have described in this Report how we plan to improve the reliability of our overhead lines. We target those circuits where we can expect maximum benefits taking into account the number of incidents on a circuit, the number of customers affected and the duration of the interruptions. We have a duty to maintain our system in a safe condition and our assets are upgraded based on condition as well as CML. Much of our capital investment therefore does not have a measurable effect on performance, but is designed to avoid deterioration of our network. The work programme described on page 18 is drawn from the specific programme we have for the improvement of quality of supply.

Percentage of Customer Minutes Lost

HVO/H Incidents

36.6%

10.9% 6.8% 8.8%

LV Incidents

24.2% 11.8%
HVU/G Incidents HV Rest Incidents

Pre-arranged

0.8% Transmission
EHV Incidents

17

Least Well Served areas to be targeted during 1997/8

3 Year Annual Average Region Southern Southern Southern Southern Circuit Selkirk - Ettrick Bridge, Deloraine, Tushielaw, Ettrick Duns Castle, Borthwick Quarry, Hardens, Gavinton, Polwarth Denholm - Bonchester Bridge, Fodderlee, Bedrule Maxton, Rutherford, Roxburgh Newton, Mertoun, Clinthill, Bemersyde, Smailmolm, Mellerstain Chapel on Leader, Birkenside Blainslie Cowstrandburn, Kinnedar, Saline, Steelend Kingston, Brownrigg, Whitekirk, Leuchie, Rhodes Holdings, Newmains Longniddry, Gosford, Aberlady Clynder, Rosneath, Kilcreggan Crossmichael, Laurieston Boreland, Sibbaldie, Millbank Holywood Lochfoot, Shawhead Scaur Glen, Wanlockhead, Leadhills, Enterkinfoot, Durisdeer Tarff - Bridge of Dee Killoch Colliery, Drongan, Ochiltree rural Part of Troon & Barassie, Dundonald rural, Symington rural Biggar - Drumelier, Tweedsmuir, Kindledores Corra Linn - Towers, Rigside Lanark & Douglas rural area Towers - Poneil, Lanark & Douglas rural area Part of Kirkintilloch, Low Moss Prison Forth, Tarbrax, Braehead Sauchie, parts of Alloa & Oakley Ecclesmachan, parts of Broxburn & Dechmont CHL 4125 1302 4792 1957 CI 1419 296 713 491 No of Incidents 8 5 4 8 Proposed Work Line rebuild & overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy Line rebuild and refurbishment Overhead protection policy

Southern Forth Forth

1669 2516 2846

388 1012 489

4 3 6

Overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy

Forth Clyde Southern Southern Southern Southern Southern

5778 1865 8690 664 1418 5493 4061

3842 1007 4001 421 1181 1543 1929

6 3 16 3 6 14 8

Overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy Line rebuild Overhead protection policy Line rebuild Line rebuild Line rebuild

Southern Western Western

1332 3882 3314

666 2346 2411

4 5 2

Line rebuild & overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy

Southern Western Western Western Western Forth Forth

2829 2038 5244 3169 7072 1662 5273

842 375 1056 1771 1968 327 2029

7 3 18 5 7 2 6

Line rebuild and refurbishment Line rebuild Line rebuild Overhead protection policy Overehad protection policy Overhead protection policy Overhead protection policy

18

Capital expenditure
Actual & planned investment for five year period 1995/6 1999/2000
In October 1995 OFFER announced that, in setting ScottishPower's Price Control, they had assumed it would be necessary to spend 431.8m on the Distribution network during the five years 1995/6 to 1999/2000. OFFERs Published Price Control Assumptions m (1996/7 Prices)
Load Related Non-Load Related Total 233 198.8 431.8

We are currently spending more on quality improvement initiatives than allowed by OFFER in the Price Control Review and our future investment plans will deliver further service enhancements to our customers. A range of efficiency improvements have already been delivered and further savings are planned for the future; Improved procurement by taking advantage of market opportunities. Cost reduction through introduction of new designs, materials and techniques. Implementation of new Information Technology systems providing more detailed operational information about our network assets and enabling more effective prioritisation and targeting of investment. Improved work management systems and working practices. Against this background of cost savings, ScottishPower's latest capital expenditure projections are: ScottishPowers Network Capital Expenditure (1996/7) Prices)
Actual 1995/6 m Load Related Non-Load Related Total 44.6 39 83.6 1996/7 m 42.1 37.5 79.6 Planned 1997/8 m 50.1 36.7 86.8 1998/9-1999/00 m 90.5 70.4 160.9 Total m 227.3 183.6 410.9

19

Reasons for Network Investment

Load related expenditure is necessary to meet customer requests for new connections or increased supply capacity and to reinforce the distribution network to carry additional demand. Our forecasts of future expenditure are driven by assumptions about local economic trends, customer requirements and movements in the location of network demand. This demand may not materialise in the future and our forecast expenditure is subject to constant review and updating. The majority of the non-load related investment programme is directed towards maintaining the existing performance and integrity of the distribution network as its age increases. Significant levels of expenditure are necessary to maintain security of supplies to customers and meet our obligation to ensure the safety of our staff and the public and comply with environmental legislation.

Achievements in 1996/7 and work planned during 1997/8

We have made significant progress with our programme of work and during 1996/7 we: spent more than 32m to ensure that supply security is maintained to our existing customers. provided more than 16,200 new housing connections. installed more than 230MVA of additional transformer capacity to meet increased requirements for customer demand. rebuilt more than 210km of 11kV overhead line. refurbished more than 180km of 11kV overhead line. replaced switchgear at more than 230 distribution substations. spent more than 870k on installation of anti-oil pollution equipment at Grid Supply Points. This programme of work will continue during 1997/8 and we will report on progress in next year's Quality of Supply Report.

New 11kV Switchboard

20

A representative selection of the major projects (each with expenditure in excess of 100k) completed during 1996/7 and planned for 1997/8 are shown in Tables 1 & 2. Table 1 Examples of Major Projects completed during 1996/7
Region Clyde Forth Forth Southern Southern Southern Southern Southern Western Project Description Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Acredyke primary substation New housing development at Seafield, Kirkcaldy Replacement of 11kV switchgear & overhead line at New Inn, Kettlebridge Refurbishment of Dumfries GSP Penpont 33 kV overhead line Rebuild of Gatehouse Tongland 33 kV overhead line Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Newton Stewart primary substation Extension to Dumfries GSP, 33 kV substation Connection of a 21MW Windfarm at Gallowrigg Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Girvan primary substation

Extension to 33kV Substation at Dumfries GSP

Table 2 Examples of Major Projects planned during 1997/8

Region Clyde Clyde Forth Southern Southern Southern Western Western Western Western Western Project Description Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Consett Street primary substation Replacement of 33kV switchgear at West George Street substation Reinforcement of 6.6kV system in Kingsknowe area, Edinburgh Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Cargenbridge primary substation Rebuild of Newton Stewart Gatehouse 33kV overhead line Uprated Supply to ICI, Dumfries Replacement of 33kV switchgear at Newarthill GSP Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Hamilton primary substation Replacement of 11kV switchgear at Newhouse primary substation New supply for Chunghwa, Mossend, Bellshill New supply to Egger Chipboard, Barony, Auchinleck

Gallowrigg Windfarm

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Detailed analysis of system performance, 1996/7

Clyde Forth Western Southern Company Table 1 - Customer Numbers Number of customers 573,777 675,983 413,952 140,353 1,804,065 Table 2 - Security No. of Supply Interruptions per 100 connected customers due to:a) Distribution faults LV (Inc. Services) HV Overhead HV Underground HV Other HV Total EHV Transmission Total faults b) Planned outages Total from all causes (a) + (b) Correction for extreme weather events Total corrected for extreme weather events 36.7 0.7 37.4 0.3 37.1 50.8 2.0 52.8 5.3 47.5 53.3 1.2 54.5 4.6 49.9 110.8 14.4 125.2 24.6 100.5 7.6 1.5 19.7 5.9 27.1 2.0 4.5 15.0 16.6 11.8 43.4 2.9 4.8 14.1 15.6 9.7 39.5 9.1 2.4 42.5 15.5 23.7 81.7 26.7 5.4 12.7 17.3 10.4 40.3 5.9 3.1 54.7 2.4 57.0 6.0 51.0

Table 3 - Availability No. of Supply Minutes Lost per connected customer due to:a) Distribution faults LV (Inc. Services) HV Overhead HV Underground HV Other HV Total EHV Transmission Total faults b) Planned outages Total from all causes (a) + (b) Correction for extreme weather events 42.1 1.5 43.6 0.4 68.5 4.7 73.2 12.9 60.3 82.6 3.5 86.1 21.0 65.1 305.7 38.6 344.3 214.9 129.4 11.4 1.5 22.9 5.0 29.4 1.3 7.5 23.0 23.3 11.8 58.1 2.9 12.3 29.2 18.1 12.7 60.0 10.3 5.0 213.7 16.4 19.5 249.7 51.0 9.7 32.4 21.4 10.4 64.3 7.8 0.7 82.5 6.1 88.6 26.7 61.9

Total corrected for extreme weather events43.2 Table 4 - Voltage Complaints Verified Voltage complaints per 10,000 connected customers 0.89

4.16

3.21

3.99

2.89

Notes for tables 2 and 3: 132kV faults aggregated at Company level. Weather correction = 6/11/96 and 3-4/12/96 replaced by an average day.

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Glossary of Terms
Availability A measure of the time the supply is not available, generally expressed as the average number of minutes per connected customer the supply is NOT available. CHL CI Customer Hours Lost Customer Interruptions, generally expressed as the average number of customer interruptions per 100 connected customers. CML Customer Minutes Lost, generally expressed as the average number of minutes per connected customer the supply is NOT available. Extra High Voltage (EHV) Nominally operating at greater than 22,000 volts but less than 132,000 volts. This usually refers to 33,000 volts. High Voltage (HV) Nominally operating at greater than 1000 volts but less than 22,000 volts. This usually refers to 11,000 volts. Incident An event which causes an uncontrolled flow of electrical current, followed by supply disconnection. Kilovolt (kV) Non-damage incident 1000 volts An incident which causes no permanent damage to equipment and therefore requires no repairs to be undertaken. Outage Free Methods of undertaking work on 11,000 volt equipment without interrupting supplies to customers. Overhead protection The use of electronically controlled links together with automated switches to restore supplies following an incident and, where necessary, disconnect damaged equipment leaving the minimum number of customers without supply. Pre-arranged This term is used to refer to planned interruptions in supplies to customers which are notified to the affected customers at least two days in advance.

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Refurbishment

A planned replacement or renewal of existing equipment as it reaches the end of its useful life.

Security

A measure of the number of supply interruptions, generally expressed as the number of supply interruptions per 100 customers.

Short interruptions

Interruptions to customers supplies which last less than 60 seconds. Their duration is typically about 10 seconds.

Substation

Premises containing one or more transformers and/or switchgear.

Switchgear

Automatic or manual mechanical devices for controlling the flow of electrical energy into a circuit or item of equipment.

Underlying performance

A measure of the performance of the system which excludes the affects of identifiable severe events.

Voltage Dip

A sudden sag in the voltage, typically in the range 10% to 30% of the sinusoidal voltage.

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How to contact us
If you have any questions or comments following your study of this report please write to the Regional Manager at your local regional office. ScottishPower plc Clyde Region St Vincent Crescent Glasgow G3 8LT ScottishPower plc Western Region Leven Street Motherwell ML1 2RA

ScottishPower plc Forth Region 10 Fishwives Causeway Edinburgh EH15 1EP

ScottishPower plc Southern Region Leafield Road Dumfries DG1 2DN

CLYDE REGION

FORTH REGION

WESTERN REGION

SOUTHERN REGION

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Scottish Power plc, Registered Office, 1 Atlantic Quay, Glasgow G2 8SP. Registered in Scotland No. 117120

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