We are all living, and working, in challenging times.
However, one thing remains unchanged during the coronavirus crisis - From the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, staff at WPD have continued to work around the clock to keep the power flowing for the eight million customers across our region.
We provide an essential service ensuring a reliable energy supply continues to reach hospitals, factories and supermarkets to enable them to continue their vital work.
We understand that delivering safe and secure power to homes is now more important than ever too. The network has helped to power home offices and home schooling, as well as to charge the devices that have helped to keep us all connected to our loved ones and the world outside.
Like everyone, we’ve had to change the way we work in response to the outbreak. But, as always, our top priority remains the safety of our colleagues and the communities we serve. That’s why any work we carry out will follow the latest government guidelines on safety and social distancing.
As well as keeping the lights on, we recognise that we have a crucial role in supporting the communities we serve during these incredibly difficult times. I’m delighted that through our £750,000 ‘In This Together – Community Matters’ fund, WPD has been at the heart of supporting its communities and in particular people living in vulnerable situations. I am immensely proud that as a direct result we have funded 463 worthy causes and supported over half a million vulnerable people.
The fund was set up in just two weeks at the outset of the pandemic and national shutdown in the UK. It was created to help communities and charities maintain and expand their support to those that were impacted most by the pandemic, ranging from vital home delivery supplies to child education initiatives to befriending services.
At the same time, we have also scaled up our existing customer support schemes which, during normal times, support people impacted by fuel poverty and living in cold homes, as well as increased our proactive contact with customers on our Priority Services Register.
Over the past five years WPD has carried out 4.3 million proactive contacts to customers living in vulnerable circumstances. As a result, we have very accurate information about their needs to share data with other support agencies during emergencies. At the start of the lockdown we therefore wrote to every local authority, local resilience forum and utility provider in our region to offer to share this data where possible (in compliance with data protection regulations) to help them identify those most in need.
So, while life may be a little different at the moment, WPD’s aim remains the same: to deliver the energy and wider support needed to help the millions of people living in our region and help them get through these difficult times.
We’re all in this together and we won’t let you down.
Phil Swift
WPD Chief Executive
