Dear stakeholders,

September saw children return to school. We're looking forward to visiting primary and secondary schools throughout the academic year to talk about staying safe around electricity, STEM learning and future careers. Find out more here. Some may be starting to think about what to do when they leave school. This month we welcomed 40 new apprentices into the business. 

Our apprenticeship programme offers a variety of roles within our business from engineering, cyber security to project management. Our 2025 apprenticeship programme opens this Autumn for applications. Pre-register your interest here. 

In September, our CEO, Ian Smyth took part in a panel at the Labour Party Conference. Ian highlighted the key work we do across the North West and the role of networks generally, including how we use our innovative approach to meet the needs of customers.

Our stand at this year’s Westmorland County show garnered lots of public interest – we shared our RIIO-ED2 plans and promoted our extra care register, LCT support, farmer safety, our apprentice programme and biodiversity plans, to name a few.

On 25 September we hosted a webinar to unpack Ofgem's consultation on the Regional Energy Strategic Plan (RESP) framework. Included, was a high-level overview of the consultation's key aspects, including proposed RESP building blocks, regional governance structures and boundaries and what this all means for the North West. 

Our annual regional stakeholder events are coming up in November and places are filling up quickly. You have two events to chose from, one taking place in Lancaster with a regional focus on our Cumbria and Lancashire stakeholders and one taking place in Manchester city centre with a regional focus on stakeholders from across Greater Manchester.

Also in this issue, we're yet again headline sponsors at the GM Green Summit, we report back on our Environment & Sustainability advisory panel and there’s a roundup of all the latest news including an important safety message for farmers around this harvest season.

In this month's newsletter...

Regional stakeholder events 2024

GM Green Summit 2024

Environment & Sustainability advisory panel

News roundup

Partner updates

Best wishes,

The Stakeholder Engagement Team 

Our regional events this year focus on investment and delivery in your region and we’re keen to see a broad range of our partners and stakeholders there, including for example, local government, public sector, businesses, trade associations, developers, government agencies and supply chain.

Please note that spaces are limited for these exclusive events and we highly recommend registering early to secure your spot.

These are free events and lunch is provided.

Greater Manchester event, Thursday 7 November, The Castlefield Rooms, Deansgate, Manchester, 10:00 - Register Here

Cumbria and Lancashire event, Wednesday 13 November, Royal Kings Arms Hotel, Lancaster, 10:00 - Register Here

The agenda will be tailored towards either Greater Manchester or Cumbria and Lancashire regions, and will include:

You will also be hearing from two chairs of our advisory panels, Jo Lappin MBE and Elise Wilson (board member of the Growth Company). We’ll be hearing how our panels help influence and shape our business decisions and planning process.

There will be panel Q&As as well as experts hosting round table discussions to enable you to share your own insights and priorities so we can keep our engagement and communication as focused as possible in future.

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Now in its seventh year, Greater Manchester Green Summit 2024 will be held at The Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays on Monday 9 December, hosted by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

Bringing together businesses, community groups, policymakers, suppliers, industry, local government and academia, the summit will see the launch of the next Greater Manchester Five-Year Environment Plan. This will provide delegates the chance to understand the challenges and opportunities that face partners across the city-region. Electricity North West is delighted to be headline sponsoring this important annual event once more. 

As a sustainable business we want to ensure that we are doing everything possible to protect our environment and support in our local communities in the region. The Environment & Sustainability advisory panel consists of environment and sustainability experts who provide advice, guidance and oversight of our sustainability performance, decarbonisation goals and commitment to biodiversity. 

Chaired by our independent Chair, Todd Holden, the panel help us deliver our role in the transition to low carbon  including, the delivery of our Environment Action Plan, community and local energy strategy, informing our decisions on how we manage and alleviate our environmental impact within the region. 

This month our Environment and Sustainability Advisory Panel was held in person at The University of Salford which included a tour of Joule House and  Energy House 2.0. Inside, there are two environmental chambers, each able to accommodate two detached houses. These chambers can recreate a wide variety of weather conditions, with temperatures ranging from -20°C to +40°C, and simulate wind, rain, snow, and solar radiation.

Thank you to our partner, University of Salford and in particular panel member Nigel Blandford for hosting the tour. 

A farmer has cheated death after crashing into an electricity pole bringing down overhead electricity lines carrying 6,600-volts. 

The incident in Lancashire, is just one of seven separate incidents reported to Electricity North West in the past month during the busy harvest season. 

Electricity North West has issued a stark warning to farmers, calling on them to look out and look up to avoid electricity poles or striking overhead lines. 

During Farm Safety Week in July, Electricity North West revealed concerning statistics that in the last 12 months, 24 separate incidents had occurred on the region's network, with many more expected to go unreported. Read more here.  

You can keep-up-to-date with the latest news and opinions from across the organisation and energy industry here.

As a proud Partner of the UK Net Zero Business Census, we’re delighted to announce that the Census report is now live with insights from 2,000+ organisations. This initiative, led by the UK Business Climate Hub in partnership with Planet Mark, provides valuable insights into how UK organisations are progressing towards their net zero targets. The report can be downloaded here. 

Bee Net Zero are working to make Greater Manchester the easiest place to become a net zero business, and have announced more support initiatives that will help you make steps towards becoming greener.

Hear from businesses who are already making progress on their sustainability journey at Green Economy’s Sustainability Champions event on 10 October at The Vale in Tameside.

Gain advice on topics from retrofit to urban greening in Manchester Climate Change Partnership’s new campaign with Manchester City council, Step Up for Net Zero.

To learn more about support available from the Bee Net Zero partnership visit www.beenetzero.co.uk 

If you are interested in finding out more about any of our stakeholder advisory panels, or if there is any topic you’d like to see in the next edition of this newsletter, please get in touch with us at stakeholderengagement@enwl.co.uk.

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