Held to account

Among the various trials and activities that form the foundations for the Social DSO model, customers and stakeholders identified a social impact fund as a priority for immediate development and piloting and there was a strong call for ENW to focus on inclusive flexibility services to ensure a just transition.

Whatever form the model finally takes, a robust mechanism is needed to track the benefits and ensure that ENW delivers on its promise to maximise value to society.

To this end, the network has adopted a social value framework integrating a social return on investment (SROI) methodology, developed alongside industry partners. This will also guide decision-making when evaluating whether to start, stop, adjust, or scale up pilot initiatives, implemented alongside other evaluation methods such as customer, stakeholder and colleague feedback.

Tracking the real-life impact of social benefits remains a bit of a grey area and in certain circumstances even activities with an obvious net benefit to society can result in a negative SROI because the social benefits that can be measured are outweighed by the costs.

The need for better monitoring and measurement is an area for future development, acknowledges Trubshaw.

“Several data partners we work with will be able to help us devise new ways to record the benefits,” she says. “In the years ahead, there will be far more data usage and collection to give people confidence that what they did was the right thing and that it had an actual benefit.”

“In the years ahead, there will be far more data usage and collection to give people confidence that what they did was the right thing and that it had an actual benefit.”

Stephanie Trubshaw, customer services & connections director, ENW

A multifaceted governance approach has also been established to support evidence of Social DSO performance and progress. Among other things, updates on Social DSO progress and the benefits delivered will be published each year in ENW’s Annual Performance Report as part of Ofgem’s Distribution System Operation Incentive, which outlines progress meeting DSO commitments set out in the 2023–2028 business plan.

Societal benefits will also be reported in alignment with the HMT Green Book, the Government’s guidance for appraising and evaluating public policies, projects and programmes based on their value, with a focus on ensuring investments generate societal benefits and contribute to the well-being of the population. Furthermore, progress on Social DSO activities will be reported under the customer component of ENW’s recently revised Responsible Business Framework.

With the Social DSO model launched and “out in the wild”, the next two years will see the strategy scaled up and new initiatives and partnerships created.

“We're working to get these consumer protections, which go hand-in-hand with the transition to net zero, in place and any support we can get from our partners in that space would be very welcome.”

Hayley Hughes, assistant CEO, Citizens Advice Manchester

Ongoing engagement with stakeholders is considered key to refining the approach, helping identify new ideas and potential partners. Contributors to this report put forward some ideas of their own for consideration.

“We often hear from people who are concerned about what would happen if a newly installed heat pump, solar panels or other technologies go wrong, what are the systems and processes they need to follow and how can they get it put right?” asks Hayley Hughes at Citizens Advice Manchester. “We're working to get these consumer protections, which go hand-in-hand with the transition to net zero, in place and any support we can get from our partners in that space would be very welcome.”

In its role as a social enterprise, Cybermoor is also working to improve 4G services in rural areas, an issue that will increase in importance as copper phone lines are switched off nationwide. Auckland says ENW is "actively looking at participating in this, because it could be of real use to us and the communities we serve".

“Despite the many social benefits of installing 4G in these areas, the big mobile companies won't put money into it.”

Daniel Heery, CEO, Cybermoor

“Despite the many social benefits of installing 4G in these areas, the big mobile companies won't put money into it,” says Heery, who is trying to partner with local stakeholders, like water companies, electricity companies or councils to co-fund the connections, which they can also harness to benefit their businesses.

“If ENW has engineers in the area who need mobile connectivity to get accurate information about a particular substation, but they can't phone someone due to a lack of signal, there's the chance they might improvise and it causes an accident, or otherwise they have to drive for half an hour to get a signal, then drive back to actually do the fix,” says Heery.

“We believe ENW could be a really good partner, chipping in a bit of money, pooled with funding from other local stakeholders, to benefit the community and themselves,” he adds. These ideas and others will help shape the future of the Social DSO model, building the case for the wider industry acceptance of societal value as a marker of success when planning network activities.

A Utility Week Intelligence report, in association with Electricity North West