What is fuel poverty and how does Northern Powergrid help?

“It’s people that have come out of hospital. Maybe somebody is recovering from cancer – it’s really important that they heat their house. The cost of fuel has gone up so much in recent years that it really is a difficult decision for them to decide whether or not they can heat their homes or eat.” – Carrie Brookes, communications manager, VONNE (Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East).

Fuel poverty affects people on very low incomes, and those living in poorly insulated and under-heated homes. At Northern Powergrid, through our Warm Homes discount, over the past three years we have insulated about 100,000 properties. We work with stakeholders to identify those households who are most at risk when the lights go off, and respond to that sympathetically.

Northern Powergrid is responsible for the electricity distribution network that powers every day life for 8 million customers across 3.9 million homes and businesses in the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.

We operate a network of more than 63,000 substations and some 60,000 miles of overhead power lines and underground cables spanning 9,650 square miles.

We have a key role in society powering peoples' lives and enabling economic growth in the communities we serve. Every day we invest around £1 million on safely managing, maintaining and improving our network.

Northern Powergrid is taking action today to be ready for the demands of tomorrow. We're ensuring we have a diverse and skilled workforce ready to manage future energy systems that interact with growing levels of smart and low carbon technologies. Ground-breaking innovation projects are exploring new technologies and supporting our transition to a Distribution System Operation function and move towards more sustainable energy in line with net zero emissions targets.

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