Leading the way on environmental sustainability
As we build our network for net zero to support the UK and Scottish Government’s world leading climate targets, we are also led by our own responsibility to be environmentally conscious, creating benefit for the communities and the environment that we work and live within.
Ofgem published their Environmental Discretionary Reward (EDR) decision last week, an annual incentive set by the energy regulator for transmission owners to demonstrate a strategic environmental focus in helping support the transition to a low carbon economy. For the third year running we are delighted to be awarded a ‘Leadership’ rating; achieving our highest scoring to date and making us the first Transmission operator to achieve EDR leadership status for three consecutive years.
We’re incredibly proud of this achievement, which is down to the hard work that our teams have delivered this past year, often in challenging circumstances as we continue to provide a high level of service for our customers and communities in the midst of a global pandemic. This dedication to sustainable practices and environmental improvement through the delivery of our critical infrastructure projects has enabled us to not only maintain but exceed last year’s rating.
In its decision letter for the 2019/20 EDR, Ofgem has confirmed SSEN Transmission achieved a leadership score all seven of Ofgem’s scoring categories:
- Strategic Understanding
- Whole System Planning
- Connections
- Innovation
- Non-Reinforcement Solutions
- Non- Greenhouse Gas Environmental Issues and
- Greenhouse Gas emissions
This success has resulted in a financial reward of £2m - a fantastic achievement for our business, demonstrating our clear commitment and focus to a just transition to net zero and sustainability.
This success comes on the back of our Consumer Value Proposition rewards in the recent RIIO-T2 final determination process, which praised our commitment to biodiversity net gain through the construction and operation of our projects, and our pledge to deliver the actions required to meet our ambitious science-based target. This makes us the world’s first electricity networks company to receive this accreditation in line with a 1.5oC global warming pathway. We’re extremely proud of our work in these areas but we’re even prouder to receive regulatory recognition for it too.
We believe, however, that there is always scope go further and since then we’ve also signed up to support the UN’s Race to Zero initiative, we’re investing in innovative “greener grid” technology as well as being confirmed as a leading energy sponsor of COP26 through SSE Group’s endorsement.
Building on our stakeholder-led Sustainability Strategy and the good progress made in RIIO-T1, we will continue to enable the transition to a low carbon economy during RIIO-T2 and beyond. Going forward, we believe achieving “Leadership in Sustainability” will play a key role, which means being a trusted
partner of customers and communities, realising long term benefit for society, the economy and the environment.
The transition to net zero requires a focus on being responsible in all that we do so that society benefits from our strategic investments, and we’ll continue to seize further opportunities to do just that.
To read more about our Environmental approach and wider sustainability ambitions please visit: https://www.ssen-transmission.co.uk/media/4675/sustainability-report-2020.pdf