National Grid 2008 Annual Report Download - page 564

BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 39309
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 45
Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/3241.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/241/3*
BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 39309
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 45 Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/3241.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/241/3*
Table of Contents
Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08
53
1,850km Safet
y
3.5m 14.3m
Gas pipe replaced
under our UK gas mains
replacement programme
UK and US targets met
to attend gas escapes
Calls handled by the
national emergency
number in the UK
Gas consumers served
in the UK and the US
About Gas Distribution
Our Gas Distribution business operates in both the UK and
the US. As a consequence of the differences in the
respective economic and regulatory environments, we report
the results of Gas Distribution as two segments: Gas
Distribution UK and Gas Distribution US.
This section should be read in conjunction with the rest of
this Operating and Financial Review, in particular our vision,
strategy and objectives, business drivers and risks and
external and regulatory environments, set out on pages 15 to
19.
Principal operations
Gas Distribution UK
Our Gas Distribution UK segment comprises four of the eight
regional gas distribution networks in Great Britain.
Our networks comprise approximately 132,000 kilometres of
gas distribution pipelines and we transport gas on behalf of
approximately 33 active gas shippers from the gas national
transmission system to around 10.8 million consumers.
We also manage the national emergency number (0800 111
999) for all of the gas distribution networks and for other
transporters in the UK. During 2007/08 we handled
approximately 3.5 million calls to the national emergency
number.
Gas Distribution US
Our Gas Distribution US segment comprises gas distribution
networks providing services to 3.5 million consumers across
the northeastern US, located in service territories in upstate
New York, New York City, Long Island, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Our network of approximately 58,000 kilometres of gas
pipelines covers an area of approximately 28,800 square
kilometres.
In the US, our core services are the operation and
emergency response for each of our gas distribution
networks, in addition to billing, customer service and supply
services.
Except for residential and small commercial consumers in
Rhode Island, customers may purchase their supply from
independent providers, with the option of billing for those
purchases to be provided by National Grid. The gas industry
is less deregulated in the US than in the UK, in that the
majority of gas supplied is still sold by local regulated utilities
such as National Grid, to customers. Regulated utilities
purchase gas from gas producers, and gas transporters then
transport this gas on the independent inter-state pipeline
system and into regulated utilities’ gas distribution networks
for delivery to customers. In our case, we receive gas from
the inter-state pipeline system at 94 gate stations. The inter-
state pipeline system and local gas distribution