Faxes are still being used to run the UK’s electricity grids, the

Faxes are still being used to run the UK’s electricity grids, the
Government’s energy systems operator has admitted.

The outdated machines are being used by the National Energy System
Operator (Neso), which is overseen by [1]Ed Miliband, the Energy
Secretary, to communicate with power producers and traders about
generating capacity and prices.

Faxes are in its key control rooms where staff monitor the UK’s
electricity flows, matching generating capacity with demand minute by
minute to prevent shortages and blackouts.

The revelation comes a day after state-owned rail operator Northern
admitted it too still used the machines.

A Neso spokesman said: “We do have fax machines in our control centre
so that we can continue to receive information from some market
participants that still use fax machines as their primary communication
option to relay their information to us.”

The machines are a legacy – Neso was part of National Grid, a
commercial company, until just a few weeks ago.

The Neso spokesman said: “We are currently undertaking a project to
replace the fax machines with an electronic system to be in place in
the coming weeks.”

A report in New Power, a trade newsletter, in May said the faxes were
used to support a range of “critical functions” including
communications with control room engineers, adding the machines were
“baked in to the Grid Code that governs the parties’ actions”.

It added: “The ‘received receipt’ which confirms a fax has been
successfully received is particularly important when fulfilling Grid
Code obligations such as the issue of system warnings.”

The revelation follows a [2]similar admission by Northern Rail. Quizzed
by Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, its bosses admitted
that faxes are still used in crew rostering.

It claimed junking fax machines for a more modern system was being
blocked by the rail unions. Unions have disputed this assertion.

In a session of the Rail North Committee, which he chairs, Mr Burnham
asked: “I’ve heard that you’re still using fax machines. How on earth
can this be the case in 2024?”

Matt Rice, Northern’s chief operating officer, said the business would
struggle to shift to a more modern alternative. “The tools we use to
get information and messages to our crew rely on faxes, amazingly. It’s
our challenge to get rid of them.”

Fax machines work by scanning a document to digitise it so it can be
transmitted over a phone line to a receiving fax machine, which then
prints it out.

The technology was revolutionary in the 1980s when few people had
email, meaning postal services and couriers were the main way of
sending documents.

However, Neso is racing to replace the technology within weeks after
being told that the analogue telephone network on which the machines
rely will be decommissioned in 2025.

References

1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/13/ed-miliband-control-britains-electricity-network-630m-deal/
2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/30/rail-operator-struggling-cancellations-admits-relying-faxes/