Which SP Energy Networks (“SPEN”) companies are in scope of the EIR Regulations?
The businesses (“companies”) in scope for the EIR are:
- SP Transmission plc, which owns, builds, and maintains the high voltage electricity transmission system within the Central and Southern Scotland area.
- SP Distribution plc, which owns, builds, and maintains the medium and lower voltage electricity distribution systems in Central and South of Scotland.
- SP Manweb plc, which owns, builds, and maintains the medium and lower voltage electricity distribution systems in Cheshire, Merseyside, North Shropshire, and North Wales.
- SP Power Systems Limited, which provides asset management support services to the companies within SPEN.
No SPEN company is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
What environmental information does SPEN publish?
As a leading electricity networks business, SP Energy Networks has a critical role to help the UK meet its ambitious climate change targets and enable the transition to a low carbon economy. We will work together to deliver a better future, quicker. Our companies publish a wide range of environmental information, and these should be reviewed in the first instance. See the following links here:
Sustainability: Reports and Publications: Reports and Publications - SP Energy Networks
Transmission Business Plan: Our RIIO-T3 Business Plan - SP Energy Networks
Distribution Business Plan: Our RIIO-ED2 Business Plan - SP Energy Networks
Open Data
Providing data to our stakeholders is one of the key pillars of SPEN’s Digitalisation Strategy. To enable us to share our data efficiently and effectively, we launched an online “Open Data Portal”. This portal can be freely accessed by our customers and stakeholders via the SP Energy Networks website, and enables users to search, view, and export datasets in simple, standardised formats.
The portal has been developed with our customers and stakeholders, and hosts a wide range of information, including demand and generation for our grid and primary substations; generation connection capacity heat maps; embedded capacity registers; shapefiles of our assets; and secondary network ratings and utilisation.
The Open Data Portal Can be accessed here: Home — SPENOpenDataPortal
What environmental information can I request?
If you cannot find the Environmental Information from our website or open data platforms, you are entitled to request from us Environmental Information that we hold on any of the following:
- The state of the elements of the environment and the interaction among these elements e.g., water, air, soil or land.
- Factors affecting or likely to affect those elements e.g., radiation, noise, energy, or waste.
- Measures or activities affecting, or likely to affect, those factors or elements, or designed to protect those elements.
- Reports on the implementation of environmental legislation.
- Cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of those measures and activities.
- The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures in as much as they are or may be affected by those elements.
Contact us:
You may contact us in any of the following ways:
By Email: eir@spenergynetworks.co.uk
By Telephone:
By Post: SPEN Data Protection Team (marked “ SPEN EIR request”), ScottishPower House, 320 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5AD.
We aim to deal with your request as soon as possible, but in any event within 20 working days. If your request is particularly complex, we may extend this to 40 working days, and we will tell you if this is the case.
You have the right to ask us for the information to be made available to you in a particular form or format when you make your request. If it is reasonable for us to provide it in that way, we will do so. Email is usually the most convenient method, but we may be able to provide printed copies or arrange for you to visit one of our offices to inspect or collect copies.
Will I receive all the information I request?
Although there is a general presumption in favour of disclosing environmental information, the EIR sets out various circumstances that sometimes allow us to withhold information. We will tell you within the statutory deadline if we are not disclosing the information you have requested, and we will explain why. This could be because the information is not covered by the EIR, or an exception applies and the public interest in not disclosing it outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.
Whatever the reason for non-disclosure, you can be sure that we will not only have considered your request very closely, but we will also have applied the public interest test when legally required to do so. The information we provide in our response will be taken from the information we hold at the date the information was requested. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information and it should not be relied on for any purpose.
How should I word my request?
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published guidance on how to write an effective request for information here.
We will endeavour to provide you with the information you have requested, however, clarity in the request will help us provide a more complete response.
Including the specific region, area or address when you request will help us establish which of our companies is best placed to search for the information requested. Please note that we will only have information on the areas of operation of our Distribution and Transmission Network Operator companies.
Some requests may be nationwide in scope and we will be unable to respond, in these circumstances it may be appropriate to contact the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
If we are not clear on exactly what information you’re requesting, we will write to you to ask for clarification and to help steer you through the process. In that case, any relevant information will be provided within 20 working days of receiving your clarification.
How do I complain about the information received?
If you have made a request for environmental information and think we have failed to comply with the Regulations, you have a right to ask us to undertake an internal review. This should be requested within 40 working days of our response. Details on how to do this will be set out in our letter.
How do I escalate a complaint?
We will aim to address your complaint in the first instance. However, if you are still unhappy following the outcome of the internal review process, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. They can be contacted in the following ways
By Post: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
By Email: casework@ico.org.uk