Asset Management

Asset Management at SSEN Transmission

Our network assets include underground and subsea cables; overhead lines on steel towers, wooden poles, and other structures; and electricity substations, extending over a quarter of the UK’s land mass and crossing some of its most challenging terrain. We achieve optimal value by ensuring we have the right governance and processes, the right people, an effective supply chain, accurate data, and a collective understanding of our organisational goals and stakeholder requirements. By balancing costs, opportunities, and risks against the desired performance of our assets, we ensure the most cost-effective and safe management of the network.

Everyone working within and on behalf of SSEN Transmission, has a part to play in managing our assets. As an ISO55001:2014 certified company, we recognise that effective asset management will ensure that our network continues to power our communities and puts our stakeholders at the heart of everything we do.

Why does Asset Management matter to us? 

Asset Management ensures our network infrastructure assets are efficiently, safely, and sustainably managed throughout their lifecycle. This enables us to make informed decisions at the right time, ensuring our investments in the network are effective and appropriate.

It ensures that we can deliver high voltage electricity safely, reliably, and cost-effectively to homes and businesses. Given the shift towards renewable energy, it's more important than ever that our infrastructure can handle new demands while staying resilient.

By aligning with the international standard for Asset Management (ISO 55001), we better manage asset risk and demonstrate to Ofgem and our consumers that we comply with their requirements and invest wisely in the transmission network.

Why does Asset Management matter to consumers and wider society?

Our lifecycle approach to asset management ensures resources are used efficiently and sustainably, reducing environmental and financial burdens for future generations. By operating and maintaining a reliable and resilient transmission network we directly support energy security, economic growth, public safety, and environmental well-being.

Asset management enables us to effectively manage risks to our network from the impacts of climate change and other disruptions. It also drives innovation and modernisation, ensuring our infrastructure can adapt to new demands and technologies.

Cost-effective asset replenishment programme

Our data driven, cost-effective asset replenishment programme focuses on replacing or upgrading equipment at the optimal time before it causes significant issues. This proactive approach helps us avoid costly emergency repairs and minimises network disruptions, thereby optimising the whole life-costs of our assets. By planning years ahead, we ensure our network remains reliable without imposing unnecessary costs on consumer energy bills.

We develop comprehensive asset life cycle plans considering the condition, risk, and future demands of our assets to optimise interventions such as inspections, maintenance, refurbishments, and replacements. Additionally, we invest in asset management tools and processes for investment optimisation and demand modelling enabling us to leverage data to create our long-term intervention plans.

To successfully deliver our long-term capital programme and manage the expanding and increasingly complex network, we ensure our staff possess the relevant knowledge, skills, training, and experience.

Keeping costs down for GB energy consumers

At SSEN Transmission, we understand that every pound we spend impacts the energy bills of households and businesses. That’s why we are continually improving our asset management capabilities, governance and processes across the business. Through the combination of operating model optimisation, company-wide improvement initiatives, and the alignment and coordination of our activities we are embedding efficiency and value into everything that we do.

We are harnessing the power of data and technology through our Digital Strategy to improve network operations, increase the effectiveness of investment planning, and optimise our workflows. The technology we employ standardises and optimises our way of working, reduces errors and increases efficiencies. Consistent, reliable, and meaningful data that is easily accessible allows us to move towards more risk-based network operations bringing further value.

A safe and reliable network

Safety is our top priority. Our asset management strategy ensures that all our assets meet the highest safety standards, reducing the risk of asset failures that could cause outages. By regularly inspecting and assessing the condition of our assets, we can intervene proactively before any issues arise, thereby ensuring the reliability and safety of our transmission network. This commitment to safety not only protects our infrastructure but also safeguards the communities we serve.

Our Strategic Asset Management Plan

Our Strategic Asset Management Plan sets out our asset management objectives that enable the delivery of our organisational goals. It defines our approach to whole life-cycle management of our assets, specifying how we prioritise our assets for intervention and how we develop our asset management plans. It also details the long-term action plan for developing our asset management system

Our Assets

Our transmission network assets range from modern cutting-edge technology to equipment dating back to the 1950s. Managing such a diverse age range presents unique challenges, including keeping older equipment up to date with regulations to ensuring that new technology integrates seamlessly into the network. Our experienced teams use the latest data analytics and monitoring tools to track asset performance, identify deteriorating condition, and provide alerts to intervene before asset failure.

Our aim of becoming World-Class in Asset Management

As part of our RIIO-T2 business plan, we have pledged to demonstrate world class asset management performance beyond 2026. Our proactive approach to continuous improvement will further enhance operational efficiency, increase network reliability, and deliver greater value to our consumers.

To measure our progress, we participate in the biennial ITAMS (International Transmission Asset Management Study) and ITOMS (International Transmission Operations & Maintenance Study) benchmarking studies. These studies allow us to compare our performance with other similar Transmission Operators globally.

Recent ITAMS and ITOMS results indicate that our asset management performance is ahead of our targets, with improving scores that show we are on track to achieve our ‘world-class’ ambition. The 2022 ITAMS cycle revealed that our overall Asset Management performance increased from 3.1 (Competent) in 2020 to 3.73 (Approaching Optimising) in 2022, surpassing our target score of 3.6 for the same period. The ITOMS study highlights our reliability and network availability relative to maintenance costs, with many areas performing at a world-class level compared to other companies.

Engaging Stakeholders in Asset Management

At SSEN Transmission, stakeholder engagement is at the heart of our asset management approach. We are committed to ensuring that our asset management objectives and activities align with the expectations and needs of our stakeholders, including customers, communities, and regulatory bodies.

Our Stakeholder Engagement Strategy (2022) is designed to enhance engagement practices, adopt best-in-class approaches, strengthen relationships, improve service delivery, and support the energy transition. The success of this strategy is reflected in our latest (2024) AA1000 Healthcheck, where we achieved an 88% score on the AccountAbility Stakeholder Engagement Maturity Ladder—a 3% improvement from 2023.

Stakeholders play a key role in shaping our asset management strategies and plans, helping us define shared priorities and responsibilities for the future of energy. Energy security remains the top priority for our stakeholders, and our investment plans focus on critical areas such as reliability, resilience, response and recovery, and redundancy. During the development of our RIIO-T2 Business Plan, stakeholder engagement was instrumental in shaping our risk-based approach to asset management, ensuring that our investment decisions align with stakeholder expectations.

Looking ahead, we have set an ambitious goal to achieve world-class asset management beyond 2026. To achieve this, we continuously collaborate with stakeholders to mitigate risks, enhance asset performance, and drive innovation. By working closely with planning authorities, industry experts, and other key partners, we share insights and data that enable continuous improvement across our asset management practices.

To further enhance transparency and accessibility, our Open Data Portal allows customers and stakeholders to easily locate and access our data. This initiative aligns with Ofgem’s Data Best Practice Principles, increasing data visibility and supporting informed decision-making. The portal also provides a clear process for requesting new datasets, further strengthening stakeholder engagement.

Ultimately, our structured and proactive approach to stakeholder engagement underscores our commitment to delivering a reliable, efficient, and sustainable transmission network that meets the evolving needs of our stakeholders.