December 2024 - Digital Strategy Action Plan Update

Executive Summary

We are making significant progress in implementing our RIIO-T2 Digital Strategy. This advancement is crucial for achieving our business goals and supporting our transmission network’s ambition to contribute over 15% to the UK’s total carbon reduction targets, aiming for net-zero by 2050.

As we near the final year of our current price control period, we are beginning to see the value and benefits of our investments over the past 3.5 years. Most of our projects are now underway, giving us confidence that we will fully deliver on our original 5-year execution plan, along with the additional reopener investments we have undertaken.

In the last six months, up to December 2024, we have focused on the following Digital enhancements:

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence capabilities to support the increased volumes of stakeholder engagement to ensure we can effectively track stakeholder sentiment analysis. This implementation has already won an industry award.

We have continued to increase our capabilities to support efficiencies across our field force through greater access and visibility of asset information via mobile devices to ensure efficiency across our maintenance activities and other work being planned.

The introduction of the PowerFactory for network modelling directly supports our investments as we deliver our Network for Net Zero 2030 ambition.

Data availability and data sharing continues to be an increasing area of demand, and we are actively extending and capitalising on our previous solution in this space to ensure we can meet the needs of all of our stakeholders.

We have also finalised our investment requirements for the upcoming RIIO-T3 price control. As part of that work, we have completed a full refresh of our strategy for digitalising our business. The outputs of that work will be reflected in future iterations of our DSAP in RIIO-T3. However, this plan is currently aligned to the RIIO-T2 digitalisation strategy and identified actions are consistent with achieving that strategy. We will continue to progress those in line with our commitments for RIIO-T2.

The vision behind our products and services

We continue to deliver our vision and enhance the IT Products and Services we use to run our business to support our SSEN-Transmission growth objectives. Our actions are prioritised to deliver value to our customers and stakeholders, by digitally enhancing our data capability, analysis and insight.

Delivering value...	Guided by a specific vision
Customer & Stakeholder and Commercials	Provide a high quality and transparent multi-channel service to stakeholders, with increased assisted and self-serve capabilities underpinned by an integrated group of fit-for-purpose platforms for entering and accessing information and insight.
Projects & Capital Delivery	A modern, slick and interactive business moving away from the paper and excel driven processes and embracing the modern technology and practices to deliver at scale and in line with growth of demand in projects.
Network Planning	Maximise the value and the opportunities presented by having easy access to a wide range of data from across the organisation to increase system performance and support future network modelling and forecasting to support the planning of a network for net zero.
Asset and Operations	Enhance existing and deliver new capabilities across Asset & Work Management that will drive business and asset performance, resulting in decreased network risk and setting the foundation for further enhancements in RIIO-T3. Delivering new and enhanced asset data collection and visualisation, network monitoring and situational awareness,. Enhancements to our operational data sharing with NESO & SPEN, alongside control centre disaster recovery facilities and capabilities. Strategically positioned for growth and further enhancements in RIIO-T3.
Enabling IT	Creating IT capabilities that provide a fit for purpose suite of applications, supporting endto-end business processes and enable the business to deliver the outcomes as efficiently as possible. Enhance our digitalisation, interoperability and data sharing capability across the energy industry via open data portals enabling savings of £30-70bn (from the Ofgem FSNR Decision) between now and 2050. Achieved through data-led strategic planning and enabled transformational system-wide benefits, such as cost savings and resilience, via optimal system maintenance, asset health monitoring, planning and operation.
Enterprise and Corporate	Creating and delivering cross functional solutions that facilitates better information sharing, enhanced control, improved safety and improved financial insight.

What we have achieved in the last six months

Customer and Stakeholder

Products we have delivered

• As part of SSEN Transmission’s ambitious ‘Pathway to 2030’ programme, ASTI projects remain a key priority. Along with our ASTI project specific microsites that have already been delivered, we are taking the next step and integrating our AI Solution to enhance security and implement further efficiencies.
  
  
• Our new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform has been successfully adopted by our colleagues for the Pre-Application process. Reporting and insight capabilities have also been delivered, which supports our people to understand next steps and actions that need to be taken. We are now building the functionality that will improve our Application journey, ensuring that this is a more cohesive digital journey for our people and enhance our customer experience.  
  
  
• Our AI solution that analyses feedback and sentiment gathered through our consultations has been deployed and is providing key insights to support our community and environment teams understand the main themes, trends and areas of concern.

Key stakeholder outcomes and performance measures

• Over 100 distinct project webpages migrated to our new engaging and accessible web page layout, supporting public engagement and ongoing consenting efforts.
  
  
• Our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution is embedded within our ways of working within the Customer Team. 100% of all Customer Pre-applications are being processed and managed in our new CRM system.
  
  
• AI solution that analyses stakeholder feedback has analysed over 3000 pieces of feedback and increased efficiency by 89%.

Capital Delivery 

Products we have delivered

• Phase 1 of the Integrated Project Management (IPM) solution has been delivered, implementing both the new Unifier platform and the Azure integration platform. Key capabilities include integration to Scheduling, Cost and Document Management systems making data visible in IPM. We have also implemented the digitalisation of our Change and Gate management processes. Next steps for RIIO-T3 are to update data from IPM to satellite systems and integrate to more systems.
  
  
• Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2 foundations have been established, with a Roadmap from now through RIIO-T3. The Asset Management and Operations BIM accreditation assessment has been completed. In addition, the regulated procurement process, to carry out substation scanning work, is now underway. This will facilitate the creation of digital representations of our assets. A proof of concept for 4D modelling is also underway.
  
  
• Build of the new Consents and Environments hub is complete. This delivers project data capture, workflow notifications and dashboard reporting.  The upload of key data sets to our existing Geographic Information System (GIS) platform began in September Further requirements have been identified and the build for this next phase started in November.

Key Stakeholder Outcomes & Performance Measures

• Improved organisation efficiency resulting from a new portfolio reporting suite based on a single source of truth, and time saved on tracking, managing and running projects through a single digital shop front.
  
  
• Single point of digital engagement through our Common Data Environment, improve collaboration with our contractors, reduce duplication and reduce likelihood of future compensatory events.
  
  
• Efficiency improvements, following the successful implementation and embedding of standardised 3D models with suppliers and partners.
  
  
• Improved Data accessibility, Reduction in rework, Reduction in wastage and visualisation of performance metrics both internally and for the external parties we depend upon.

Network Planning

Products we have delivered 

• We have successfully delivered early value in our system performance area, using data automation from operational network devices. This has significantly reduced time collating data into the required format for analysis, allowing our electrical engineers to focus on value-add activities and effective power quality monitoring.
  
  
• “As built” network model has been created in our new system planning tool, Power Factory and project migration from our current planning tool PSSE for ETYS (electricity ten-year statement) projects are almost complete. We have also hosted various super user training days for Power Factory to nominated business users both from the vendor and progressed towards our strategic cloud infrastructure landscape.
  
  
• We have finalised an infrastructure POC for our Power Systems Computer Aided Design system (PSCAD) ready for testing by the business in our enhanced cloud platform. Enduring build is progressing and will significantly improve the reliability and scalability of the current solution

Key Stakeholder Outcomes & Performance Measures

• Reduced timescales for customer connection requests because of faster and more effective system planning modelling.
  
  
• More frequent whole system model updates enabling us to respond quicker to customers and plan the future Transmission Network more efficiently.
  
  
• Enhanced user experience for engineers due to high performance compute and additional capability that Power Factory offers.

Asset Management & Operations (IT)

Products we have delivered 

• The Maximo mobility solution (Fingertip) has been formally deployed into production paving the way for the Total Work Management (TWM) Project to configure the mobile forms required for operational field users to receive and complete their work digitally on any SSE standard mobile device.
  
  
• We have completed a tender process for a cloud solution capable of storing very large-scale files. All marine survey data has been successfully migrated. The project team are now focusing their attention on all overhead line and subterranean survey data with an objective of co-locating all survey data for improved accessibility and security. APIs will enable integration of survey data with core asset systems in future phases.
  
  
• We are running a proof of concept within the Maximo MAS8 environment to ascertain its AI capabilities in identifying faults in towers and poles. The model will be trained on a series of survey photos with the results analysed against the known fault register to determine if the AI model can be rolled out to the Operations Team to provide efficiencies and cost savings in survey analysis.
  
  
• The first interface between our asset systems has been configured to pass location data between Maximo and our graphical information system (ArcGIS). This interface provides a platform for additional data types to be transferred between these two core asset systems, ensuring data consistency and accuracy.

Key Stakeholder Outcomes & Performance Measures

• Operations field users’ efficiency enhanced via simplified data entry and real-time access to asset data, while reducing errors and improving workflow management as part of TWM.
  
  
• Rolling out Egnyte for storing survey data ensures secure, digitalised centralised access to large data sets, improving collaboration, data integrity, and regulatory compliance while streamlining file management across teams.
  
  
• Using AI to identify faults from survey data enables faster, more accurate detection of issues, reducing downtime, improving maintenance efficiency, and enhancing grid reliability.
  
  
• Electronic data transfer ensures data quality and parity, enhancing operational work planning and execution though more accurate data driven decision-making, improving operational efficiency.

Asset Management & Operations (OT)

Products we have delivered 

• We have completed our Front-End Processor build and deploy, to a stage where the server capacity exists for Business configuration and alignment of Remote Terminal Units. This enables the Business to arrange geographically distributed devices and aggregators of operational data in an optimal way.
  
  
• The first phase of our new Control Centre Disaster Recovery site is complete and in parallel the second phase has been taken to execute stage. This built the foundation Control and Compute Facilities, as we now embark on a large and complex stage of full Control Room technology and Operational Technology communications build out to complete the site.
  
  
• We have entered the execute stage of our Inter-Control Centre Communication Protocol project. Transitioning infrastructure, systems, and communications links with NESO and SPEN, delivering network status data exchange.
  
  
• We have also entered the execute stage of our Complete Network Insight project. Bringing enhanced Control Room data normalisation, and Control systems (PowerOn/ PI) to Field Operations accessible (PI) network situational awareness data.

Key Stakeholder Outcomes & Performance Measures

• Increased targeted maintenance which minimises outages and customer impacts, as a result of improved operational data infrastructure.
  
  
• Creating the independent fail-over facility and capability required to allow us to always monitor and manage the network and serve our customers.
  
  
• Implementing the industry standard communication of network status ensuring we are always aligned with National ESO and interfaced TO’s.
  
  
• Utilising the systems we have invested in to share more efficiently, both point in time and real time, network situational awareness resulting in us working more effectively for our customers

Enabling IT

Products we have delivered 

• We have soft launched our new Integrated Data Platform (IDP) which will enable reporting across our Transmission core systems. The platform continues to mature and focus on ingesting data initially from our core asset systems such as Maximo and ArcGiS.
  
  
• We have completed the launch of Ataccama, our data catalogue and data quality tool. Our initial group of data stewards and data owners, along with the data management team have now completed their onboarding and training. Our primary focus will be on developing data quality reports for Maximo and ArcGIS data initially.
  
  
• We continue to drive value through our Digital Automation Team, this includes the automation of manual business processes, for example our new colleague Journey Planner Assessment application.

Key Stakeholder Outcomes & Performance Measures

• Enabling access to trusted data resulting in improved analytical reporting, allowing our business to make better informed decisions faster.
  
  
• Providing a mechanism and process to catalogue our data and develop data quality reports and dashboards to provide the business a clear view of where data improvements are needed. Improved data quality will ultimately lead to more accurate reporting and decision making.
  
  
• Ensuring we are proactively providing data to our stakeholders, whilst making it easier and quicker to request data, saving time and effort.
  
  
• Automation of manual business processes to create more efficient and streamlined ways of working.

Our Data Vision 

To become a data-driven leader in electricity transmission, harnessing the power of data to deliver a safe, resilient and efficient electricity transmission network that meets the evolving needs of our customers & stakeholders and the transition to a sustainable energy future.

Data Strategy

• This year we have refreshed our data strategy. Our data strategy describes how we will manage, use and share our data with the industry, our customers and stakeholders, to become a data driven organisation. It sets out the data capabilities required through the RIIO-T2 and the RIIO-T3 regulatory periods.
  
  
• The core of our strategy is to organise data into business owned data domains, treat it as a product, enable self-service access, and support these activities with federated data governance. In doing so, we will empower the whole organisation to use and manage data, transforming ways of working, embedding data driven culture to realise our growth and digital aspirations.
  
  
• In line with our data strategy themes and objectives, we continue to develop our capabilities in the areas of data culture, data scope and format, data management and governance and data products and technology.

Interoperability 

SSEN Transmission continues to actively work with industry peers and Ofgem through the Energy Networks Association Data and Digitalisation Steering Group on common initiatives to develop and enable interoperability. We are engaged on the ENA Data and Digitalisation Steering Group Standards and Interoperability Subgroup.

We continue to actively work with industry peers and Ofgem through the Energy Networks Association Data and Digitalisation Steering Group on common initiatives to develop and enable interoperability. We are engaged with multiple ENA Data and Digitalisation Steering Group (DDSG) subgroups, including:

• The Standards and Interoperability Subgroup; which targets the development and implementation of consistent energy system data related standards aligned to Data Best Practice Guidance requirements.
  
  
• The Technical Common Information Model (CIM) Working Group; which is intended to oversee the development of standards to support the development of CIM interoperability protocols. Within our Digital Programme, we are investigating the implementation of Common Information Modelling (CIM) for specific internal data exchange requirements, including network planning model exchange.
  
  
• The Metadata Standards Working Group; which we lead, focuses on the standardisation and alignment of metadata standards within the industry. Aspects of standardisation include data semantics (terminology and meaning), ontologies (structures and relationships), metadata and exchange mechanisms. Energy system interoperability requires standardised data-related services and practices across sector participants to enable timely, efficient and effective data exchange, integration and utilisation between both humans and machines.
  
  
• The Shared Licencing Subgroup; to facilitate the creation of a shared licence that can be applied to specific shared datasets.
  
  
• The Open Data Triage Subgroup; which we will lead, will refresh the ENA Data Triage Playbook to maximise the use of Open energy data whilst protecting the security, privacy and resilience of data.

We have played a key role in establishing a Transmission sector working group for Digital Information in Infrastructure Delivery. The aim of this forum is to accelerate infrastructure delivery, via common design, supply and install information standards. They common standards will also assist handover of data to Asset Management and Operations teams.

Alongside this we have engaged with the Open Data Working Group and lead the Energy Data Self-Help Group. All these groups are working together in a coordinated manner to reduce obstacles relating to the discovery, interpretation and use of energy system data.

Data Architecture

We have established an Asset Lifecycle Cradle to Grave Working Group to align data standards and processes across our business teams and core business systems. In parallel, our Data Architecture function is developing a suite of data models, initially focused on our main business data domains. Given the positive, business wide engagement of this approach, it will be replicated for other value streams, including Customer & Stakeholder and Projects & Capital Delivery.

Data Products and Technology

We have launched a new internal Data Catalogue and Data Quality tool. This is a foundational step towards enabling our data operations and embedding our use of data standards. Thereby improving the visibility and usability of data for our business teams, customers and stakeholders.

The solution consists of the following modules:

• A data management platform designed to streamline data quality, governance, and master data management.

• A Business Glossary; a repository of business terms and rules relevant the transmission business. It helps in explaining data within the data catalogue by providing context to specific terms and their meanings.

• Data Quality Monitoring & Reporting; providing data quality monitoring and reporting.

• Data Quality Cleansing and Remediation; providing workflow functionality to support data cleansing and remediation activities The initial minimum viable product (MVP) was focused on core asset data. We will expand the use of this tool through the remainder of the RIIO-T2 period. In parallel we continue to expand the Data Catalogue within our Open Data Portal with new datasets that have been triaged as ‘open’. We have adopted the 15 mandatory Dublin Core metadata terms to use in both our internal and public domain Data Catalogues to better signpost our data for Stakeholders.

Data Sharing in the Energy Ecosystem

As a Stakeholder led business, it is important that the data we share is useful and of value to those who need it. As our Open Data Portal approaches a year since launch, we have been working on a research project to understand what our Customers and Stakeholders would like to see published on the portal moving forward. This insight is emerging and will allow us to set out a roadmap for how we can evolve the portal to offer most benefit.

We are participating in the Data Sharing Infrastructure Pilot Project with industry partners including National Grid ESO. The Data Sharing Infrastructure aims to create a common data sharing infrastructure, in a secure, resilient and scalable way, to achieve an interoperable ecosystem of connected digital twins, based on principles of Prepare, Trust and Share. The Pilot phase will help shape the technology, use cases and governance and is based on an initial outage management use case.

Data and Analytics - Looking ahead to RIIO-T3

Not withstanding the progress made, we now have a much greater appreciation of the size and scale of the foundational challenges in front of us, to use data and analytics to cost efficiently scale our operations through the RIIO-T3 period. We have translated these insights and the opportunities into our data strategy, and a suite of programmes to be delivered in the RIIO-T3 period.

Stakeholder feedback in relation to the products we have delivered

Value Stream	Stakeholder engagement and feedback
Customer and Stakeholder	In response to feedback from our Stakeholders that they wanted to ensure their voices are heard during our consenting process, we developed and implemented our AI tool. This expedited our analysis of stakeholder feedback and provided invaluable insight for our colleagues to review and action where needed.  We engaged with our Communities Team in relation to the capabilities we have delivered via our AI tool and have received positive feedback.
Capital Delivery	IPM has been quoted as a real game changer by our stakeholders by providing that central source of data, and the additional automated project and portfolio reporting suite providing great visibility to all areas of the business on the progress of our Large Capital programme. Our Building Information Modelling Managers have led the way in delivering our Digital Change plans, which support the successful embedding and adoption of our new BIM Level 2 foundations Our Consent and Environment team were actively engaged and helped to shape the design of our new Consents and Environmental hub. The team is now actively using this new solution to complete task and improve their ways of working.
Network Planning	As part of our move from PSSE to Power Factory, we have had fantastic feedback from end users with regards to the new capability Power Factory provides. The new system is built on accurate data from our core asset systems providing data accuracy and consistency across the business. The business are particularly happy due to the new system being CIM (common information model) complaint, removing re-work and allowing users to easily share network models with other TOs and DNOs where required. Previously, system engineers had to use local installs and USB dongles to use PSSE (current system) which will no longer be the case. Stakeholders and users are particularly excited about our move to new cloud infrastructure, as this provides users with system access flexibility, solution scalability and high-performance compute, allowing users to carry out complex system studies without delay.
Asset Management & Operations (IT)	The improvements we are implementing across asset and work management activities are resulting in positive feedback from suppliers and partners regarding consistency of data and a more digitised user experience. Increasingly, our asset data being associated with geospatial and wider additional data sources will result in increased opportunities to share data with external parties to support a Virtual Energy System, this is aligned with wider industry partners. The design and delivery of these solutions have been developed in partnership with business owners and stakeholders.
Asset Management & Operations (OT)	All new and enhanced solutions are designed, developed and deployed in partnership with our key internal and external stakeholders. There are regular opportunities for input and our stakeholders are consulted throughout the lifecycle of our projects. Business users are actively involved in users’ acceptance testing and post ‘go live’ we provide strong hypercare support which increases user confidence and supports the successful implementation of enhanced ways of working and behavioural change.
Enabling IT	We have recently undertaken an external stakeholder engagement to ensure our Open Data Portal is providing our stakeholders with the information they require in an easily accessible manner. Feedback has been positive, and we have a suggested list of additional data sets which can be reviewed for suitability and sensitivity. Our data catalogue and data quality tooling has only just been launched for both Maximo and ArcGIS data. We are currently onboarding the data stewards for this data and will monitor progress over the coming months.

All of our Digital Projects have robust People Side of Change plans that drive engagement, embedding and adoption of new systems, process, features and processes. Our Change plans are also business-lead and support our objective of enhancing our ways of work, driving cultural change and influence our Great Place To Work survey results.

The Products and Services that we will be working on

We are investing in digitalisation, interoperability and data sharing to deliver a fit for purpose suite of applications that supports end-to-end business processes. This enables the business to deliver its strategic goal to grow our network, with ASTI projects being a priority. We are focusing on making it easier for our colleagues, customers and stakeholders to access, request, analyse and gather insights from our data. The Products and Services we are working on during the next quarter will improve collaboration, standards and enhance our data ecosystem so we can deliver optimal system planning, maintenance and asset health, and thereby enhance our customer and stakeholder experience.




On the following pages, we share a plan of key milestones that we will deliver across the first half of 2025, as they relate to the Products and Services above.

This plan shows the key milestones we will reach over FY24-25/25-26

Completed or de-commissioned/de-prioritised Projects

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Delivering for stakeholders and wider society

We are excited to share the huge success we’ve achieved by implementing Tractivity-hosted web forms to enhance our stakeholder engagement practices. This change has transformed our interactions with stakeholders, enabling seamless data transfer and more efficient management of our stakeholder data.


Key achievements over the past 6 months

Implementing Tractivity into Our Website: The integration of Tractivity into our website has led to significant improvements, saving us 360 hours of administration time. We have updated over 100 project web pages so far with Tractivity-hosted registration forms, allowing our people to concentrate on engagement and nurturing relationships. Our enhancements are not limited to development projects and extend to a variety of non-development projects as well. For example, we have effectively utilised these new forms to support our Community Benefit Fund engagement.

Enhanced Visibility: We have increased the visibility of our project update registration forms by prominently placing them in the banner at the top of our webpages. This strategic enhancement encourages greater participation from stakeholders, supporting our outreach efforts. Revamped Registration Journey: We completely redesigned our “Register as a Stakeholder” journey. Previously reliant on manual processes with website-hosted forms, we now utilise Tractivityhosted forms, eliminating manual handling and the associated human effort. This transition simplifies the process and improves the experience for stakeholders and our teams.

New Pre-Registration Capability: For the first time, we have started using pre-registration forms that allow stakeholders to submit questions ahead of our upcoming events. This capability incorporates stakeholder engagement best practices, enabling our engagement managers to collate important questions and provide answers during the events for which attendees have registered. This proactive approach fosters more meaningful engagement and ensures that stakeholders feel valued.

Sharing our progress, best practice and lessons: We were honoured to be invited to speak at the Stakeholder Engagement Summit in Manchester as leaders in stakeholder engagement and streamlining our practices with digital solutions. During this event, we proudly shared our progress and engaged with a diverse range of sectors, including electric and gas network businesses, healthcare, aviation, atomic energy, and consulting and communications businesses.

Revamped Sustainability Web Pages: We are excited to announce significant upgrades to our website content, particularly focusing on our new Sustainability web pages. These pages have been entirely rebuilt and rewritten, resulting in a much more engaging and accessible user experience. This revamp aligns with the launch of our new Sustainability Strategy, which is a fundamental aspect of our business and of great interest to our stakeholders.

New Community Benefit Fund Application Journey: We successfully launched the Community Benefit Fund online application journey and information pages on 1st September, leveraging our website’s functionality to create an intuitive and user-friendly experience. This initiative has not only streamlined the application process but has also significantly enhanced our search engine optimisation (SEO) through the high-quality content and website structure. Looking ahead, we may replace this journey with a secure application portal managed by our SSE Group colleagues.

Engaging Stakeholders through Annual Consultation: In our continued effort to engage with our stakeholders, we built a draft annual engagement plan online consultation for our Stakeholder Engagement Team. This initiative provided remarkable results, achieving an all-time high in the number of feedback submissions received for this annual consultation. This engagement helped us identify priority areas for the year ahead and further improve our stakeholder engagement activities.

Informing Communities on ASTI Projects: Furthermore, our website has been instrumental in providing essential information to communities and wider stakeholders regarding our Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) projects. The improvements made to our project web pages earlier this year have proven extremely beneficial, especially ahead of the crucial public consultations held in September and October. Through these enhancements, we are dedicated to ensuring that stakeholders have access to the information they need while fostering a transparent dialogue about our initiatives and their benefits.

Leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to help analyse stakeholder feedback

Ongoing Improvements and Collaborative Success

In the past six months, we have continued to refine and enhance our AI solution. Using this invaluable community feedback, we are making adjustments to the delivery of our new transmission infrastructure, a recent example includes the adjustment to the route and design of the Kintore to Tealing overhead power line. Additionally, we’ve listened to our stakeholders and decided to relocate a major piece of infrastructure, the Hurlie substation, demonstrating our commitment to responding to local concerns and ensuring our projects align with the needs of the communities we serve. We prepared our AI system to process feedback from consultation events scheduled throughout September and October, enabling us to analyse stakeholder input swiftly and effectively. We have also introduced additional functionality to flag potential route alignment options, ensuring that this critical data is readily accessible to our key teams, helping them make informed decisions on project design.

Award-Winning Approach to AI and Customer-Centricity

Our dedication to digitalisation and customer service has garnered national recognition, with SSEN Transmission proudly winning multiple awards at the prestigious UK Customer Experience Awards on 17th October 2024:

• Bronze for Best Use of AI, celebrating our AI tool’s capability to deliver faster and more accurate analyses of stakeholder feedback.
• Bronze for Best Customer-Centric Culture, reflecting our commitment to placing customers at the heart of our operations.
• Gold for Best Voice of the Customer Initiative, showcasing how direct customer feedback has driven transformative improvements across our business. This encompasses enhancements to our internal processes, customer service, relationship management practices, and on the digital side of things, including improvements to our web journey and the design of our new CRM system.

Although AI may be a new concept for many people and businesses, our determination and belief in the principle that what we don’t know, we can learn, has empowered us to successfully deliver a solution that provides faster feedback and data analysis. This commitment to excellence has resulted in consistent outcomes while helping us keep operating costs down. We take pride in flying the flag for SSEN Transmission, the wider SSE Group, networks as a sector, and Scotland as a whole. But our work continues; we are actively sharing our approach and valuable lessons learned with stakeholders, including NESO, National Grid Electricity Transmission, SSEN Distribution, and SGN, fostering collaboration and encouraging innovation.

Leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to help analyse stakeholder feedback

Sharing Our AI Success and Insights

As part of our commitment to collaboration and knowledge sharing, we recently shared our AI case study with Utility Week, highlighting the innovative strides we’ve made in harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance stakeholder engagement and feedback analysis. This case study aims to inform and inspire others as they explore the potential of AI in their operations.

In addition to this, we had the opportunity to present our AI project to an audience of c. 200 stakeholders from various SSE businesses, as well as representatives from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and other organisations. This engaging session was part of a Cloud Expo hosted at our Reading offices, where Iain Ewing, Head of Digital Delivery, and Shaun Hodge, Product Owner, showcased the capabilities and successes of our AI solution as well as technical and data privacy challenges the project team overcame together.

The presentation was well received, with stakeholders expressing appreciation for the insights shared. Participants found value in the session and left with actionable learning and best practices that they can apply within their own teams. This exchange of knowledge is vital for driving innovation across the industry and reinforcing our role as professionals in digital transformation.

Delivering for customers

NESO and SSEN Transmission colleagues collaborating on 10th October 2024

Establishing an Initial Integration Backlog with NESO

Our collaboration with National Energy System Operator (NESO) continues to strengthen as we align our efforts towards a seamless integration that will support the upcoming changes from Connection Reform. This initiative aims to prepare us for set application windows, necessitating streamlined and accurate data sharing. Following our recent workshop on 10th October 2024, we established an initial integration backlog with NESO, identifying priority integration opportunities and essential technical steps for effective data flow. Our joint focus is on starting with SBN (Scheme Briefing Notes) data, subsequently addressing other key areas like DRC data, offer acceptances, and technical competency checks, etc. This structured approach ensures we address the most critical components first, creating a reliable foundation for future integration efforts.

Developing our CRM System Functionality

Simultaneously, we have been advancing our CRM system functionality, focusing on functionality that directly supports our customers and enhances colleague collaboration. This includes crucial elements such as Applications and Offers, which are vital for delivering quality service and connecting customers. We recognise the complexity involved, especially regarding the various handover points and interactions between SSEN Transmission, our customers, NESO, and internal teams. We’re aiming to minimise application fallouts and ensuring a ‘happy path’ experience that aligns with the forthcoming connection application windows.

Enhancing Customer Service and Relationship Management

A core focus of our CRM development is improving customer service and relationship management. Drawing from our Voice of Customer (VOC) feedback, we are establishing functionality to deliver a systematic cadence of contact with our customers and compiling information to help build a ‘corporate memory’ of our customers. These are vital for providing consistency and enhancing our customers’ engagement with us.

Positive Feedback from Investment Planning Engineers

In a recent system demonstration, our Investment Planning engineers expressed enthusiasm about the CRM’s capability to centralise their work and organise tasks by date. This marks a significant improvement over existing email-based workflow. One engineer highlighted that the functionality developed so far will be “improving everything that is wrong with our work,” underscoring the benefits of the CRM. By providing them direct access, engineers can process competency checks themselves, removing the Offers Team from the process and reducing unnecessary intermediaries.

Strengthening Expertise with Full-Time SMEs

To ensure our CRM meets requirements and optimises the customer journey, we have onboarded two full-time subject matter experts (SMEs), Lorraine and Haley. Lorraine focuses on the regulated aspects of the customer journey and data integrity, while Haley focused on the customer relationship side of things. Our new Customer Experience Process Analyst, Chris, maps current and future processes. Together, their insights are invaluable in aligning our CRM with best practices and efficient processes.

Engaging in Broader Internal Integrations

We are also actively engaging with other value streams to explore internal integrations across SSEN Transmission’s investment planning and project management systems. This cross-functional alignment will support our CRM as a central hub for connections and customer information, further enhancing data transparency and operational efficiency.

Leveraging Social Media

Social Media Impact Report

Organic Impressions & Reach

Over the past six months, our social media efforts have yielded impressive results, demonstrating the effectiveness of our organic strategy. We have achieved a total of 1.5 million impressions and a reach of 805,478 across our social media channels. Breaking this down, we recorded 765,336 reach on LinkedIn, 35,702 reach on Facebook, and 3,455 reach on Instagram. These figures highlight our ability to connect with our audience and amplify our message effectively.

Two-Way Engagement Plan

To further enhance our interaction with stakeholders, we have developed and implemented a two-way engagement plan. This plan focuses on fostering genuine conversations and receiving feedback from our audience, ensuring that we are not only broadcasting our messages but also actively listening to the needs and concerns of our community. Our total follower count across all channels has reached an impressive 38,000, reflecting the growing interest in our initiatives and the value of our content.

Enhanced Engagement for Consultation Events

Our enhanced engagement strategies have significantly improved participation in our consultation events. By leveraging our social media platforms, we have been able to promote these events more effectively, leading to higher attendance and more meaningful discussions. These engagements allow us to gather insights and input from diverse stakeholders, which are invaluable for our ongoing projects and initiatives.

Accessibility and Audience Engagement

Social media is helping us become more accessible to different demographics, allowing us to convey complex information in a more digestible manner. By being present across various channels, we can engage with different audiences, tailoring our messaging to resonate with specific groups. This multifaceted approach not only broadens our reach but also ensures that our content is relevant and accessible to everyone.

Business Case for Social Media Management and Listening Tools

Recognising the need for more effective social media management, we have prepared a business case to explore systems that will support us in managing our social media presence more efficiently. This includes enabling social listening capabilities, which will allow us to monitor and engage with conversations about our brand and industry in real-time. We are currently reviewing opportunities for new software that will be used as a proof of concept to allow us to better understand the opportunities in this space with a view to this informing our strategic approach for the future.

Collaboration Across the Industry

Recognising the importance of collaboration, we are working with partners across the industry to amplify our collective voice for net zero. By joining forces with other organisations, we can leverage shared expertise and resources to drive impactful change and engage broader audiences. These partnerships are crucial in fostering a unified approach to achieving our sustainability goals.

In-House Social and Digital Campaigns

Finally, we are proud to share that we have successfully curated and managed social and digital ad campaigns in-house. This approach not only allows us to maintain control over our messaging but also to tailor our campaigns to resonate more effectively with our audience. By leveraging our internal expertise, we can create impactful campaigns that align with our organisational goals and drive greater engagement.

In summary, our social media strategy has proven to be a powerful tool in enhancing our outreach and engagement. With a solid foundation built over the past six months, we are excited to continue evolving our approach and reaching even more diverse audiences in the future.

Accessing this document and other information

We understand the value of involving diverse groups of people in our work and the importance of being accessible and easy to deal with. As a stakeholder-led organisation that works to AccountAbility’s AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard, SSEN Transmission is committed to continuously improving its stakeholder engagement practice and processes to make sure we are inclusive and accessible throughout your engagement with us. If you would like a printed copy of this document or require it in an adapted format, such as large print, please get in touch so that we can accommodate your preferences. We are proud to announce that we achieved top-tier performance in stakeholder engagement for the third year running and our highest score yet, with our digital projects highlighted by AccountAbility as making an important contribution towards this.

When you visit our website, you can use a variety of support tools within the Recite Me toolbar to read and understand content in a way that works for you. Features include customisable styling features, multiple reading aids, and a translation tool with over 100 languages including 65 text-to-speech. Our website users can launch the Recite Me assistive toolbar by clicking the yellow treble-A icon on our website. For more information on Recite Me, please visit our accessibility web page.

Supporting communities through volunteering

In our new Sustainability Strategy, we have reaffirmed our commitment to volunteering, aiming to enhance our engagement with local communities through an increased number of volunteering days. We are particularly keen to incorporate skilled volunteering opportunities and tackle digital exclusion, allowing our team members to share their expertise and make a meaningful impact. Our ongoing discussions with the Scottish Tech Army are central to this, as we explore collaborative ways to harness technology and support community projects. Through these efforts, we aspire to not only contribute to societal well-being but also to foster a culture of giving back within our organisation.

Requesting information 

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SSEN Transmission   |   Grampian House   |   200 Dunkeld Road   |   Perth   |   PH1 3GH


This SSENT Digital Action Plan (December 2024) represents a full view of planned, ongoing and completed initiatives. There have been no projects deprioritised nor discontinued in the period. For detail on previous achievements under our Digital Action Plan initiatives, please refer to the previous iterations of this plan which are archived on our website. These are also available by post upon request.