National Grid 2016 Annual Report Download - page 45

Metering
National Grid Metering (NGM) provides
installation and maintenance services to
energy suppliers in the regulated market in
Great Britain. It maintains an asset base of
around 13.4 million domestic, industrial and
commercial meters.
Customer satisfaction scores for NGM remain
positive for both its domestic, industrial and
commercial businesses. We continue to work
with our customers on areas for improvement
by exploring additional products and services
so we can respond to the rapidly changing
non-domestic sector.
We continue to evaluate the opportunity of
participating directly in the smart metering
market by providing an end-to-end, dual-fuel
smart metering offering to energy suppliers.
UK Property
National Grid Property is responsible for
the management, clean-up and disposal
of surplus sites in the UK, most of which
are former gas works.
During 2015/16, we sold two sites and
exchanged contracts on several high-profile land
disposals with our joint venture partners under
St William Homes LLP. Our estate management,
gas holder dismantling and contaminated land
clean-up programmes continue to reduce
operational risk across our portfolio. In April
2016 BNP Paribas Real Estate took on our
new real estate management services.
Xoserve
Xoserve delivers transactional services
on behalf of all the major gas network
transportation companies in Great Britain,
including National Grid. Xoserve is jointly
owned by National Grid, as majority shareholder,
and the other gas distribution network
companies. Xoserve celebrated its 10 year
anniversary as a company on 1 May 2015.
US non-regulated businesses
Some of our US businesses are not subject
to state or federal rate-making authority.
These include interests in some of our LNG
road transportation, some gas transmission
pipelines (our minority equity interests in these
are not regulated) and certain commercial
services relating to solar installations, fuel cells
and other new technologies that are an
important part of our future.
Corporate activities
Corporate activities comprise central
overheads, Group insurance and expenditure
incurred on business development.
Interconnectors
The England-France interconnector (IFA) is a
2,000 MW HVDC link between the French and
British transmission systems with ownership
shared between National Grid and Réseau
de Transport d’Electricité. Average availability
for 2015/16 was 92.94%, up from 90.46% in
2014/15. A substantial proportion of the flow
continues to be in the import direction, from
France to Great Britain.
In July 2015, we launched a new process
that gives customers vital information before
an outage, meaning they are more able to
accurately react and adjust their market
position – improving the service they receive
from IFA.
BritNed is a joint venture between National
Grid and TenneT, the Dutch transmission
system operator. It owns and operates a
1,000 MW HVDC link between England and
the Netherlands. As with IFA, a substantial
proportion of the flow is in the import direction
from the Netherlands to Great Britain.
Following Board approval for the Belgium
(Nemo Link) and Norway (North Sea Link)
interconnectors in 2015, construction is
now under way for both projects.
Nemo Link, developed between National
Grid Interconnector Holdings Ltd and Elia,
the Belgium transmission system operator,
will connect Richborough in the UK and
Herdersbrug in Belgium. The subsea cable
will be 130 kilometres in length and have the
capacity of 1 GW. Nemo Link is due to be
operational in 2019.
North Sea Link (NSL) will connect Blyth
in the UK and Kvilldal in Norway. Developed
between National Grid and Statnett, the
Norwegian transmission system operator,
at 720 kilometres, NSL will be the world’s
longest subsea cable and will have a capacity
of 1.4 GW. NSL is expected to be operational
in 2021.
Grain LNG
Grain LNG is one of three LNG importation
facilities in the UK. It operates under long-
term contracts with customers and provides
importation services of ship berthing,
temporary storage and re-gasification
into the national transmission system.
Our road tanker loading facility was
commissioned in November 2015. The new
loading hub offers a more environmentally-
friendly alternative fuel and allows road tanker
operators to load and transport LNG in bulk.
In focus
31%
Approximate percentage of UK
gas from LNG imports, up from 27%
in 2014.
Principal operations continued
Other activities
LNG ship reloading
During 2015/16, we completed our
rst LNG ship reload where more
than 157,000m3 of LNG, at around
-158°C, was transferred onto another
ship for onward transport. The reload
process, coupled with the storage
capability available at Grain, provides
greater exibility for customers.
Creating potential for new homes
In April 2015 we sold our site at
Leeside Road, Tottenham to the
London Borough of Eneld. The
17 acre site has potential for 840
homes. We dismantled two gas
holders before the sale, using clay
from the London Power Tunnels
project to ll in the holder bases.
In the same month we sold our
90 acre site at Ebbseet Green
to Redrow homes. The site has
potential for 950 homes and forms
part of the wider garden city
proposal championed by Chancellor
of the Exchequer George Osborne.
“ We sold two sites this year,
creating the potential for
more than 1,750 new
homes in London”
43National Grid Annual Report and Accounts 2015/16
Strategic Report
Principal operations