Unmetered Street Lighting Connections

The provision of new electrical connections, disconnections and transfers of electrical street furniture to the underground electricity network which is the responsibility of Northern Powergrid the Distribution Network Operator (DNO).

The provision of this service is to undertake work on the network belonging to Northern Powergrid who are the statutory undertaker of the distribution network, there are operations that cannot be carried out by any other party (non contestable works) and as such are essential to maintain electricity supplies to street furniture. There are elements of this work that are deemed as emergency works such as the disconnection of equipment because of road traffic collisions, live exposed cables, emergency removal of equipment for other statutory undertakers etc. Failure to carry out such work immediately could leave the Council open to litigation in the event of injury.

Connections to unmetered street furniture is a specialised service which is predominantly limited to (DNO) distribution network operators, there are some contestable works for which there are a small number of contractors authorised by Northern Powergrid, but these are generally utilised for major projects where there are large quantities of connections that require undertaking making it commercially viable.

The price of connections varies across the DNO areas throughout the country and is based on charges that OfGEM permit them to levy, these are based on their investment into the network and the age and capability of their assets. Contestable works can be benchmarked across independent connections providers (ICP) and where possible these will be used to undertake connections. The ICP's price the work based on volume, and small quantities of work across a large geographical area are commercially less attractive than major projects and tend to be more expensive than the DNO pricing structure, therefore utilisation of ICP's for ad hoc connections work spread cross the district is not cost effective. When ICP's are used that have to submit their designs for approval to the DNO before work can commence, this adds additional timescales into obtaining the work.