Privacy policy

At UK Power Networks Services, we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
Our privacy policy (including any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which we process any personal data that we collect from you or about you that you provide to us or that we receive from other sources. By processing, we mean when we collect, use, store, delete and otherwise manipulate or access personal data.

If we ask you to provide information from which you can be identified, including as a result of using our website, it will be used in accordance with this privacy policy, as it is varied from time to time.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. We recommend that, from time to time, you visit our website to review this policy to stay up to date with any changes to it.

What establishes our data protection obligations?
UK Power Networks is required to process your personal data in accordance with the law.
The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) implements the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (EU Regulation 2016/679).
This privacy policy complies with the DPA and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (the “GDPR”).

Who is the Data Controller for UK Power Networks Services?
A data controller is a person or persons who determine the purposes for which and means by which personal data is processed. In other words, at UK Power Networks, we are a data controller and we require information about you in order to do business and keep your electricity supply connected.

Because UK Power Networks has two businesses – our regulated business and our services business – we have more than one data controller.

By our regulated business, we mean the distribution of electricity through the public electricity distribution system, which has been developing since the first introduction of public lighting in the mid-1880s. Our regulated business is carried out as a legal obligation under the Electricity Act 1989 (as amended). If you are a customer of our regulated business – usually, this will be the case when your home is directly connected to our electricity distribution network – your data controller is UK Power Networks (Operations) Limited.

UK Power Networks (Operations) Limited is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Company name Company Registration Number (Companies House) Companies Registration Number (ICO)
UK Power Networks (Operations Limited) 03870728 Z6304295

By services business, we mean our electrical contracting business. It manages privately owned electricity networks for large infrastructure projects, such as airports and rail. Unless you are a representative of one of these privately owned networks, the data controller of the services business would have no reason to hold any personal data on you.

Who is the Data Protection Officer for UK Power Networks?
Our nominated Data Protection Officer is Nick Zentner, who can be contacted at DPO@ukpowernetworks.co.uk.

The Data Protection Officer (the “DPO”) is responsible for monitoring our compliance with the GDPR, for informing and advising our business of its obligations in relation to the processing of personal data. The DPO is the point of contact with the ICO, the UK’s data protection supervisory authority, and is the person to whom you should direct any enquiries.

What personal data does UK Power Networks collect and process about you?
To distribute electricity to you, UK Power Networks will process personal data about its customers, such as your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and landline and/or mobile phone numbers.

If relevant, we may also collect and hold data such as details about your property, the name and contact details for the registered person who pays the bill, the alternative contact details for a home on the Priority Services Register, financial and credit information, and other information that helps us to provide our customers with a better service that is capable of being tailored to specific energy requirements or particular needs.

How does UK Power Networks collect this personal data?
Information that you give to us
This is the personal data that you provide to us, for example by filling in forms on our website (www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail, post, social media or otherwise.

This personal data would relate to applications for an electrical connection to our networks, notifications of any planned interruption to your service for the performance of maintenance works, storm warnings, complaints about damage to an electrical cable, or any other communications relating to the distribution of electricity to you.

To find out more about the purposes for which we intend to use this personal data and how long we keep that data, please view our FAQs.

Information that we receive from other sources
This is the personal data that we receive about you from others, such as from you electricity supplier. As a distribution network operator, UK Power Networks also works closely with third parties (including, for example, our sub-contractors in construction and delivery services, analytics providers, credit reference agencies) to provide and maintain your electrical connection. We also cooperate with and report to government agencies and regulatory bodies, such as the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), to ensure that we are meeting our statutory obligations and providing an acceptable level of service to you and all of our customers.

We will notify you when we receive information about you from third parties. To find out more about the personal data that we collect from third parties, the purposes for which we intend to use this, and how long we keep that data, please view our FAQs.

Information we collect when visiting our website
In line with our information security standards, we monitor website behaviour through Google Analytics. We collect information about how each visitor uses our site. These are then used to compile reports and to help us improve our site. Information is collected in an anonymous form, including:

  • the number of visitors to the site
  • where visitors have come to the site from
  • the pages visited

UK Power Networks wants to provide you with the best possible service. We are always looking for ways to improve. This includes improving our website so that it provides the information that you need, on a regularly updated basis and in an easily accessible way.

Cookies on the UK Power Networks website
To improve and keep our website up-to-date, we collect information about your visit and we may share some of this information with our third party data analytics service providers to help us assess and improve our website. When this website data is shared with third parties, it will be provided as anonymised, aggregated data with personal data no longer identifiable.

Like most websites, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users. These are small text files stored in your web browser, which can identify you (or your device) when visiting our website. This helps us to check on the effectiveness of your experience and devise ways to improve our website to improve its content, search functions, and make it more user friendly.

Information that we may collect from your visit includes your device’ s Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), services you viewed or searched for, page response times, and length of visits to certain pages.

For more information on our use of cookies, view our cookie policy.

For what purposes does UK Power Networks Services collect and use personal data?
UK Power Networks Services processes the personal data that we hold in the following ways in order to:

What we use your personal data for Our reasons / legal justifications for using personal data in this way Legitimate Interests
To help us distribute electricity to you To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subjectTo perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To manage your application for a connection of your premises to our electrical distribution network and, once made, to manage the continuation of that connection. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To manage applications for an enhanced capacity of supply or any change to your existing connection. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To manage applications for disconnection from our electrical distribution network. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network caused by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To respond to interruptions in the electricity supply to premises that you occupy. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties
To protect your/a third party’s vital interests.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we are paid for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Making any statutory compensation or ex gratia payments
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To provide you with updates and alerts, such as the estimated time for restoration of your electricity supply following an interruption in supply, (for example, in the event of a pwer cut due to bad weather). To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To advise you in advance of planned interruptions to your electrical supply, (for example, when we need to perform maintenance relating to our cables). To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To monitor our work and maintain our records. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as a DNO to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our
  • legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To administer and improve our website and other communications with you. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely and sharing important safety messages
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Maintaining relationships by keeping third parties informed of business updates
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To enable legal compliance with statutory and legal obligations. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you.
To detect, investigate and prevent fraud and other criminal offences. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties
To protect your/a third party’s vital interests.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Protecting the company from crime
  • Informing our approach to risk and our insurance programme
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To respond to any compaint that you might make. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Enabling us to investigate and respond to complaints
  • Monitoring and improving the service that we offer you
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To contact you in an emergency. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties
To protect your/a third party’s vital interests.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network.
To answer general enquiries that you may make. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To conduct market research as required to do so by regulatory bodies such as Ofgem and to improve the service that we provide you.. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To perform a task carried out in the public interest
To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Making sure work is carried out safely
  • Delivering our responsibilities as a DNO to keep the lights on
  • Being efficient about and developing how we fulfil our legal, regulatory and contractual duties and achieve our company vision
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Ensuring that we are paid for connections made to our electricity network and for the operation and maintenance of our electricity network and for any damage caused to our electricity network by you or others
  • Processing and paying our suppliers’ and contractors’ invoices
  • Ensuring that we have the appropriate property rights for our electricity network and have the access necessary to carry out work on our electricity network
  • Engaging with our key stakeholders.
To establish and maintain our Priority Services Register and provide tailored services to vulnerable customers. To enable us to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Delivering our responsibilities as an operator of an electricity distribution network to keep the lights on
  • Planning and managing our electricity network and ensuring it is appropriately operated and maintained
  • Updating and maintaining our customer records
  • Enabling access to relevant, local support services.
Making a decision about your recruitment or appointment. To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Being an employer choice and following good market practice.
Checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK. To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To enable us to comply with legal obligations.
  • Being an employer choice and following good market practice.
Dealing with legal disputes involving you, or other emplyees, workers and contractors and third parties including accidents at work. To allow us to enter into or perform our contract with you
To enable us to comply with legal obligations
To pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties.
  • Assessing our liability in connection disputes and an appropriate response
  • Developing and improving how we respond to disputes
  • Complying with rules and guidance from regulators and courts
  • Being efficient about how we fulfil our contractual and legal duties.

UK Power Networks will not process your personal data to sell it to a third party.

Special Category Data
Some personal information requires an additional level of protection. Under the GDPR this is known as “special category data” and includes information relating to:

  • race;
  • ethnic origin;
  • political beliefs;
  • religious beliefs;
  • trade union membership;
  • genetics;
  • biometrics (where used for ID purposes);
  • health;
  • sex life; or
  • sexual orientation.

To provide services in connection with our Priority Services Register, we sometimes need to process special category data such as health information for reasons of substantial public interest.

We only process special category data in very limited circumstances and ensure that we treat this data with the level of care required by the GDPR and the DPA.

When does UK Power Networks disclose personal data?
To fulfil our statutory obligation to provide and maintain our customers with a supply of electricity, it may be necessary for UK Power Networks to share your personal data with others, including:

  • other entities in the UK Power Network group of companies
  • your chosen electricity supplier
  • our third party business partners, suppliers, and subcontractors, and any of the third parties listed above which also provide us personal data
  • other providers of essential services, such as gas transporters or water companies, local authorities and the emergency services
  • analytics providers that assist us with improvement of our website
  • credit reference agencies and other companies and organisations for the purpose of fraud prevention and credit risk reduction,
  • government agencies and independent regulatory bodies
  • and as might be required by law, including compliance with any court order or legal obligation.

UK Power Networks may be required to share personal data with emergency services organisations for purposes associated with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

To conduct market research to improve the service we provide, it may be necessary for UK Power Networks to share your personal data with third party market research providers but only to the extent they need it to carry out their specific task.

In the event that UK Power Networks (or substantially all of its assets) were to be acquired by or merged with a third party, the personal data held by us about our customers would be included amongst the assets transferred or shared. If we were to sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose personal data held by us to the prospective seller or buyer under strict confidentiality terms.

When entering into any agreements that involve the sharing or disclosure of personal data, UK Power Networks requires that these third parties comply with our data protection and information security policies or have substantially similar policies of their own in place.

Where does UK Power Networks store your personal data?
UK Power Networks has put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to prevent accidental loss, damage or destruction of your personal data, and to protect your personal data against unauthorised, or unlawful use or theft. We put in place strict confidentiality agreements, including data protection obligations, with our third party service providers and data processors.

Your personal data may be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), where processing activities such as technical support, storage and backup may be provided. When this data is sent outside the EEA, we shall ensure its secure transfer and that appropriate safeguards are in place for the processing of your personal data in accordance with this policy and the requirements set out in the GDPR.

What are your rights?
The GDPR provides you with a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These include rights to the rectification or erasure of your personal data, and to restrict or object to its processing.

Rectification
If you find that any of the personal data that we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or contains errors, please notify us in writing and we shall undertake to make the appropriate corrections at the earliest opportunity.

Erasure
Should you wish to have some or all of your personal data erased, we will endeavour to do so although there may be instances where legitimate interests or the performance of our statutory obligations prevent us from doing so. The erasure of your personal data could result in an inability to provide you with some or all of our services.

Restriction or Objection
If you wish to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed by us, you can do so by writing to us. Please see our contact details below. Please be aware that such requests could result in an inability to provide you with some or all of our services.

You also have the right to data portability and to make a data subject access request.

Portability
You may request that UK Power Networks provide the personal data that we hold about you to another data controller in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

Access
You may request to be told whether or not personal data about you is being processed by UK Power Networks. If your personal data is being processed, you are entitled to receive a response from us that provides you with a description of that personal data, the purpose for which it is processed, the recipients or category of recipients to whom that data is disclosed (including any recipients located outside the EEA), the source of the personal data, and information about its retention and storage. A copy of the personal data that is undergoing processing shall be provided to you.

To make such requests, it is advisable to do so in writing and to address this communication to our Data Protection Officer, c/o UK Power Networks (Operations) Limited, 237 Southwark Bridge Rd, Camberwell, London SE1 6NP.
You can also email us at DPO@ukpowernetworks.co.uk.

How to make a complaint
If you are unhappy with the way in which you believe UK Power Networks has dealt with your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer to give us the opportunity to put matters right for you. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Changes to our Privacy Policy
If in the future we make any changes to our privacy policy, the latest version of our privacy policy will be posted on our website.

Contacting us
Your questions, comments or requests relating to our processing of your personal data or this policy are welcome, and you may contact us via our contact us webpage. This webpage provides a number of contact details relating to our different services. For other data protection matters or to report a data breach, please contact Nick Zentner at DPO@ukpowernetworks.co.uk.

Version date: February 2022