Key Activities
TEMPER establishes the foundational data and modelling capability required for SSEN Distribution to quantify how a changing climate will alter the failure behaviour of its network. Using poles and overhead-line conductors as a proof-of-concept, the project will:
- Construct a new asset-failure methodology that apportions historical fault data to individual assets using asset information, maintenance and repair records, and engineer input.
- Train climate focused failure-probability models against forward climate projections.
Recommend changes to SSEN’s data, systems and processes to improve asset failure information.
- Model scenarios for future climate related regulatory metrics and ensure that the new models and data quality recommendations are working towards SSEN being in a proactive position going forward.
Expected Outcomes
The project delivers a foundational, transferable capability for asset risk modelling. Specifically:
- A failure method that utilises feeder-level fault records for asset-level failure evidence, validated against engineer and subject matter expert (SME) input, providing a detailed asset-level failure dataset for the chosen asset class.
- Climate-focused probability-of-failure outputs for poles and overhead-line conductors under forward climate scenarios, demonstrating what is possible with current data and where the limits sit.
- A set of data-quality and system-change recommendations specifying how SSEN should evolve its fault-recording, asset-register and maintenance systems to support granular, climate-aware risk modelling at scale.
- A forward-looking position on emerging Ofgem climate-resilience metrics, ensuring SSEN is configured to lead rather than follow on future price-control evaluations.
- A review and investigation of how the modelling output can support sub-regional, asset-level intervention decisions (for example targeted wood-to-steel structure replacement in elevated-hazard locations), giving the business a blueprint for translating climate risk into investment choices.
- An opportunity for SSEN to implement new processes and policy to pro-actively intervene for at-risk assets and reduce the likelihood of power outages.
Project Budget
£437,500
Start/End Date
July 2026 – March 2027
