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igem news – yppc

SHEDDING THE LOAD

DRIVING CHANGE WITH FIRM LOAD SHEDDING

By Andrew Firth, Data Accuracy Officer & Firm Load Shedding Access to and control of the data to
Coordinator, at Wales & West Utilities, and YPPC 2018 finalist maintain and ensure accuracy
Site linking to limit the number of
FIRM LOAD SHEDDING is a process in for performance, out of the four gas calls a customer receives
which gas distribution networks restrict distribution networks (GDNs) in the UK. Incorporated scripts to remove the
or curtail the supply of gas to industrial With my involvement in the exercise need for printing
and commercial supply points during over the years, and my degree partly in The ability to actively manage incidents/
an emergency. The main aim of this computer science, I had a good idea of exercises to maximise performance and
practice is to reduce demand, giving what was involved. I believed there was action issues as they occur
preference to domestic customers. Gas a lot of potential to improve the system Live reporting so data can be freely
distribution networks do this as it’s and ultimately WWU’s performance. I available to all and up to date
more manageable to contact a number therefore took over managing the firm load Adaptable incidents/exercises to
of non-domestic companies than shedding process at the end of 2014 and effectively respond to the situation as
attempting to make individual contact started what would become a three-year it evolves
with thousands (or millions) of low project to improve WWU’s performance. Improved customer engagement
volume gas users. The main objective of the firm load
This process is tested annually as part Existing system review shedding project was to create a new
of the wider National Gas Emergency The first task carried out, as part of the system that was simple, user friendly
Exercise. Following the exercise in project, was to analyse the existing system and intuitive. This can be summed up
2014, there was an opportunity to to identify the issues and areas to improve. by the following quote: “Although ten
take charge of the process at Wales & The following issues were identified: seconds would be quite ambitious,
West Utilities. Having taken part in Many sites had outdated and it highlights the point that in an
the exercise for a number of years, and incorrect data as they relied on emergency a user should be able to pick
with an IT background, I believed I third party updates flowing through up the system in a short space of time.”
could drive some improvements in the multiple sources
systems we used and ultimately improve When new contacts were received Project evolution
performance, so I put myself forward. from Xoserve, they were just added What started as a few small changes
Over the next few years, what to previous ones, leading to an evolved into a full-blown project and in
initially set out as a simple IT change overabundance of contacts as old total took three years to deliver. This is
to improve the system, evolved into contacts were not removed how it evolved:
a project, which took until late 2017 There were more contacts than places
to finish. Alongside that, I instigated to record data, causing confusion 2015 – Initially the project was delayed
changes to how we contact and interact Any information captured from contacts and the changes were not going to be
with customers and improved how we was then overwritten and lost when we delivered in time for 2015’s emergency
approach the exercise. received new data from Xoserve exercise. Therefore, WWU decide to
The new system was partially delivered There were 216 tick boxes on the CRM improve user training and removed the
for the National Emergency Exercise in screen, which users had to try and need to check contact details during an
October 2017, and we managed to deliver navigate exercise, making it closer in experience
Wales & West Utilities’ best result to Customers with multiple meters to a real incident. With this, performance
date, with 95 per cent of the customers received multiple phone calls, improved to 67 per cent. However, it also
contacted and able to switch off gas. which caused irritation and negative identified further requirements.
Now, with the solution in place, we aim customer experiences
to improve on this result and set the The complexity of the system meant the 2016 – WWU began to explore various
standard for the industry. exercise couldn’t be actively managed concepts and requirements, although
Wales & West Utilities (WWU) Reports had to be manually triggered as the project was still a low priority it
brought in a new system for firm load Overall poor user experience progressed slowly. WWU also instigated
shedding in 2012. Unfortunately, as All these factors played a role in the first meeting between all the GDNs
can be seen in Figure 2, this did not WWU’s downturn in performance. which focused solely on firm load
have the desired effect and over the shedding, exploring how each carried out
next few years performance steadily Aims and objectives firm load shedding and the systems they
declined. In 2014, WWU only managed In order to maximise performance, it was used. WWU had a temporary system in
to successfully contact and get 51 per important to strive for the following aims: place for 2016’s emergency exercise to
cent of customers to agree to switch off An open system that all users within test some concepts which helped improve
in an emergency. We also ranked third WWU could access performance to 81 per cent.

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