Disruption to essential services like electricity can sometimes happen and it affects our everyday lives. For some, a power cut can be worrying or difficult. Acknowledging the pivotal role that Community and Parish Councils play in achieving better outcomes for communities and widening the safety net of care around them, we are asking for your help in reaching people who may need extra support during power cuts.

We are Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), we operate the electricity network in your area. We keep the lights on, TVs running, and homes and businesses heated for 3.9 million customers, with 99% reliability throughout the year. Your residents may not be aware that extra advice and support is available for when there is an interruption to the power supply. By informing your residents of the Priority Services Register this will enable them free access to:

• Our dedicated Priority Services line is available 24 hours a day.  We’ll contact you, or your nominated contact if we need to switch off your power to carry out essential maintenance.
• We offer a password service where you can agree a password to use when dealing with SSEN staff. That way we can look after your personal safety and home security.
• When we are aware of an unplanned power cut affecting your home, you will receive proactive updates 24 hours a day.
•  We will contact you regularly to confirm the details we hold for you are correct and if we do not hear back from you on these occasions, we will only keep your data for 5 years.

What is the PSR and who is eligible?  
The Priority Services Register is a free UK-wide service which provides extra advice and support, including when there’s an interruption to your electricity, gas or water supply. You are eligible for free PSR services if you:

• Use medical equipment reliant on electricity or water.
• Are blind or partially sighted.
• Are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Are of pensionable age.
• Have a disability.
• Live with children under five.
• Have a chronic illness.
• Have anxiety, depression or any mental health condition.
• Loss or impairment of smell.
• Need documents translated into another format or language.
• Temporarily need extra support.
• Everyone has different needs. Contact your distributor to discuss your requirements.

What resources are available to promote the PSR? 
By promoting the Priority Services Register with your residents you will be helping our welfare teams provide extra support to where it is needed most during a power cut. The toolkit has been designed to help you have conversations about what the PSR offers, how it can make a difference to your residents and provide peace of mind during power cuts. You will find the following resources within the toolkit:

• Information you can copy and paste into your newsletters, emails, information sections on your websites and discussion points for team meetings or coffee mornings.
• Posters
• Social media assets
• Links to helpful advice

We appreciate some of your residents may not be in our license area, however by signposting them to our registration pages (for Scotland and England) customers can enter their postcode which will direct them to the right utility to register.

If you have any queries regarding the PSR, please contact us on networkscvteam@sse.com.

Whether through email, newsletter, coffee morning or via social media channels, we hope that this pack supports you to have conversations about the benefits of the Priority Services Register. Thank you for helping us to provide extra support to the communities you serve.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Vulnerability Team