Review and next steps: RIIO digitalisation strategies
Correspondence and other
Publication date
Industry sector
- Distribution Network
- Offshore Transmission Network
- Supply and Retail Market
- Transmission Network
- Generation and Wholesale Market
What have we done?
In December 2019, each of the network companies regulated by the RIIO price controls published a digitalisation strategy, following a request made by us. We have reviewed these, made recommendations for how they can be improved and determined the next steps we will take. The open letter, below, gives more detail.
Why did we do this?
The GB energy network has to evolve for it to offer modern energy services and for the Net Zero cabon emissions target to be met, all at the lowest possible cost to consumers. To achieve this modernisation, the energy network will undergo numerous complex changes. Robust decision-making processes from the network companies will ensure these changes are successful. To ensure good decisions are made it is critical that customers, staff and stakeholders can observe, scrutinise and influence the decisions. Publishing network companies' digitalisation strategies improves transparency and helps this happen.
A summary of what to expect next
We are asking network companies to respond to our feedback by making improvements to and publishing an updated version of their digitalisation strategy by 31 December 2020. As they do so, we ask that from now on they rename these documents a "digitalisation strategy and action plan" to clarify our focus on a need for evidencing progress against these plans.
As part of the RIIO-2 and RIIO-ED2 price controls, we will propose including a licence condition that requires regular updates to the digitalisation strategy and action plan. We will give more detail about this as part of the overall RIIO-2 and RIIO-ED2 consultation processes. In the open letter, below, we have also stated that we will propose a related licence condition, one that requires network comapnies to comply with "Data Best Practice" guidance, which is currently being drafted.
Exactly what we reviewed
We reviewed the versions of the network companies' digitalisation strategies that were published on the 9th December 2019. Some network companies have published minor updates since then. For clarity, we include the versions we reviewed on this webpage, below. If you wish to view the latest versions of the network companies' strategies, see our page that provides web links to the latest versions.