Operational Data

Maintenance

Maintenance is an essential part of our role in keeping the high-pressure gas National Transmission System (NTS) safe, fit for purpose and operating efficiently and economically in line with our regulatory obligations. 

To undertake work on the NTS, we sometimes need to implement an outage to part of the network or temporarily reduce system flexibility (for example, where steady flows are required). These activities can affect one or more parties connected to the network, including: 

  • Gas‑fired power stations and large industrial consumers 
  • Gas storage facilities 
  • Gas entry terminals 
  • Distribution networks 

Gas network routes

Find out more about our gas pipeline routes.

Customers may be impacted by a range of maintenance activities, such as: 

  • Routine maintenance 
  • Asset replacement 
  • Pipeline and defect inspections 
  • Emergency and fault response 
  • Works required to enable new investment in the network, including new connections or additional capacity 

Maintenance Incentives 

Certain aspects of our maintenance activities are covered by performance incentives. We may receive a reward or incur a penalty based on how efficiently we plan and carry out maintenance that affects customers at direct exit connections from the NTS. 

We prepare and publish an NTS Maintenance Programme, which specifies the Days on which planned maintenance will take place. Any Day so specified is treated as a Maintenance Day for the purposes of applying capacity restrictions, relieving certain obligations, and issuing user notifications, during which the Transporter carries out planned maintenance of the NTS. 

The maintenance incentive consists of three components with a Cap and collar +£0.6m /-£1.7m: 

1. Use of Days – Valve Operations, 5-day target allowance of alignment. +£0.m / -£0.5m. Measures the efficient use of maintenance days specifically associated with valve operation activities. 

2. Use of Days – All Other Maintenance, alignment of 90% customer maintenance +£0.35m / -£0.7m. Assesses the efficient use of maintenance days for all maintenance activities excluding valve operations. 

3. Changes to the Maintenance Plan, minimisation of changes to the agreed maintenance plan (3.5% benchmark of total number of days for year). +£0.25m / -£0.5m​. 

These elements encourage stability in planning by incentivising us to minimise changes that are initiated by National Gas to the agreed maintenance programme.​ 

​Flexible Approach to Maintenance 

We aim to minimise the impact of our maintenance activities on customers by being transparent about our plans, aligning our works with customer outages wherever possible, and accommodating flexibility needs. 

Maintenance Plans 

When working with customers to plan system access requirements, we consider a range of factors, including maintenance needs, forecast supply and demand patterns, and outage programmes from relevant and affected industry parties. 

Each year, we request customers planned outage dates so we can align our maintenance activities accordingly. If your outage dates change, please notify us as early as possible at [email protected] so we can assess whether it is possible to realign our work to minimise any impact. 

Report Changes to Your Outage Plans 

If your planned outage dates move, please get in touch with us immediately so we can explore options to adjust our works to reduce any impact. 

Contact Details

  • [email protected]
  • 07483 495373 – East Area
  • 07543 309260 – West Area 
  • 07815 481707 – Scotland & North Area

Customer recharge process

It may be possible for us to agree different maintenance approaches through a mutual contract with directly connected customers. 

Customer Recharge Process

Maintenance documents: