Utilities

Powering people, not just the grid

How National Grid unlocked £876,000 of capacity through data skills

£876,000

annualised employee capacity unlocked, with time handed back to teams to focus on higher-value work.

250 people

6 business units, 6 programmes. Data skills embedded across National Grid's Electricity Transmission and Distribution businesses, not siloed in one team.

4 hours

saved per week, per person as manual spreadsheets give way to automated pipelines and self-updating dashboards. Attributed to the programme by 73% of line managers.

Across National Grid's Electricity Transmission and Distribution businesses, teams used to lose hours maintaining spreadsheets, manually compiling reports and relying on external support for analysis.

To realise greater value from data, the organisation invested in building data capability across the business, rather than just concentrating expertise within specialist teams.

Through Corndel's Data Academy programmes, 250 employees developed practical skills in data analysis, automation and visualisation – and applied them to real business challenges.

Here’s how they delivered measurable improvements in

· efficiency,

· operational decision-making,

· safety,

· self-sufficiency

· and innovation

Driving efficiency at scale

Reducing manual processes has freed up valuable time. Participants now use tools like Power BI, Power Query and Python to automate reporting, streamline workflows and provide self-service access to information.

Based on feedback from line managers, 73% of participants are saving an average of four hours per week through the application of these skills; that’s £876,000 worth of employee capacity annually.

Instead of continually collecting, updating and preparing data, employees can now focus their time on analysis, planning and other higher-value work.

"I reduced update times for key workflows from a full working day to less than 10 minutes."

Georgia

Senior Energy Market Analyst

Georgia

Senior Energy Market Analyst

Strengthening operational planning and decision-making

Data solutions now enable teams make faster and more informed decisions across critical operational activities.

Participants have developed solutions that:

· provide up-to-date visibility of outages

· highlight sites that need attention

· improve access to operational information

Others are analysing project datasets to uncover trends and provide insights that support planning and decision-making.

By improving access to trusted data and enabling teams to generate insight faster, National Grid is strengthening operational planning and oversight across its network. These capabilities help teams prioritise activity, maintain visibility of operational performance and improve oversight of critical infrastructure.

Reducing risk

National Grid wanted to build data capability that not only boosted productivity, but meaningfully improved governance, compliance and operational assurance.

One apprentice developed an automated data pipeline connecting a third-party inspection system with internal databases, giving the business improved oversight of safety-critical equipment inspections. The solution helps ensure inspection schedules can be monitored more effectively, strengthens governance processes and supports legal compliance obligations.

By making critical information more visible and reducing manual monitoring processes, data skills are helping teams reduce risk across the business.

Speed, self-sufficiency and innovation

The programmes are about building capability from within.

Teams that previously relied on external support or heavily manual processes can now analyse, visualise and act on data themselves. This means:

· solving problems closer to where they arise,

· responding faster to business needs and

· spreading expertise across the business.

National Grid now has a growing network of data champions embedded throughout the organisation, not siloed in specialist pockets. 77% of line managers already report stronger innovation as a result.

"Previously, a lot of it was manual, but since we started this programme, it's allowed us to take a lot of that in-house and start doing our own analysis."

Dale

Resource Planner

Dale

Resource Planner

Efficient, innovative, resilient

National Grid's story demonstrates the value of investing in people as well as technology.

By embedding practical data skills across the business, the organisation gained efficiency, strengthened operational planning and oversight, improved governance and compliance, and reduced reliance on manual processes and external support. Ultimately, supporting a stronger critical service for the Nation.

Most importantly, National Grid are building a workforce that uses data to solve problems, generate insight and drive continuous improvement. As these capabilities continue to spread across the organisation, it has the foundations for an even more efficient, innovative and resilient future.

Success without the wait

We’ve partnered with over 400 enterprise organisations, and tens of thousands of people within them. Here’s just a snapshot of their stories, showing what’s possible when you give people everything they need to thrive.

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Utilities

Powering people, not just the grid

How National Grid unlocked £876,000 of capacity through data skills