Full Report on Independent State-of-the-Network Review on Aurora Energy Released

The full report of the independent engineering review by WSP found most of Aurora Energy’s assets pose a low risk to public safety, reliability or the environment.

Aurora Energy’s chief executive Richard Fletcher said “Given the company’s major network renewal programme, we wanted independent assurance that we are targeting our proposed investments in the areas that need it most and will deliver the most safety and reliability benefits.

“The independent review found that overall the network is safe, though the condition of a portion of specific asset types (protection, poles and cross arms) will carry a higher public safety risk as we work through the renewal backlog.

“The review has achieved its main aims which were to confirm the state of the network and determine the resulting risk to customers and the wider public. We will use the findings of the full report as we move forward with our major programme to renew Aurora Energy’s ageing network. Our plan, set out in detail in our 2018 Asset Management Plan, includes our focus on maintaining an accelerated pole renewal and strengthening programme for up to three more years aimed at getting it to a steady-state level.

“When the top level findings were released at the end of October we outlined the immediate actions we would take in relation to testing and maintenance of protection relays and further research into network resiliency in the event of major natural disaster.

“We will now consider WSP’s full report in detail as we prepare our 2019 Asset Management Plan. Our early view is that our updated ten-year plan, to be published in March 2019, will include an accelerated plan to replace our higher risk protection relays identified by WSP, will enhance the reporting of network risks and report on our plans to achieve greater network resilience,” said Mr Fletcher.