Utilities work hard to ensure they provide essential services to their customers and are dedicated to keep you safe, warm, and independent in your home. To ensure that your energy and water providers can provide this extra support, we have been working with utilities to make it easy for those living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to register.
It is important that the distribution network companies know about you. These are the companies that deliver, manage and maintain the infrastructure to deliver gas and electricity to your home. Note this is not the same as your supplier with whom you pay your bills.
What is the Priority Services Register?
The Priority Services Register (PSR) helps utility companies look after domestic customers who have additional communication, access or safety needs. It helps them tailor their services to support households who may need extra help, and is free to join.
The PSR is available to domestic customers across England, Wales and Scotland.
Please remember to register with both your energy and water providers as they maintain separate registers. However, there are plans in place to join these registers in the future which means one registration will at that point (with your explicit consent to do so) be kept and shared across both. For now however please be aware that you should ask each provider.
Rest assured your data will be safe. Privacy laws will always be followed and your PSR information will never be used for general marketing. You will be asked to provide your agreement (or explicit consent) to allow your data to be kept and shared across utility companies, allowing the provision of these safeguarding services. If anything about your situation changes you can tell the utility company and they’ll update your details. If you don’t want to be on the PSR anymore, just ask to be removed and they’ll do this for you.
We recommend you register so that you may benefit from services such as:
- Alternative water supplies in the event of an interruption
- Alternative heating and cooking facilities in the event of the delivery of your gas being interrupted
- A dedicated number and specialist team to support you and your family during a power cut
- Keeping you safe on the doorstep with the use of passwords and identification badges
- Priority support in the event of an emergency for example a severe weather incident
- You can also register for alternative communication such as large print correspondence or bills or to send these to an alternative contact at your request
It is also worth contacting your provider to discuss the range of services that might be right for you and your family as there is a wide range of support available.
How to register
There are a number of ways to register.
If you wanted to call and speak to someone you can do this with your water company and energy supplier(s); you can find the relevant telephone numbers on your utility bills or by going onto their websites by searching for 'Priority Services Register'.
If you prefer to register online we recommend that you register directly with your electricity networks or 'Distribution Network Operators', and water company and you can follow the links below to do this:
If you do not know who your electricity network operator is you can enter your post code on the Energy Networks website.
North West England
- Energy: Electricity North West
- Water: United Utilities
North East England, Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire
- Energy: Northern Powergrid
- Water: Yorkshire Water & Northumbrian Water
Central & Southern Scotland, Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales & North Shropshire
- Energy: SP Energy Networks
- Water: Scottish Water & United Utilities.
North Scotland and Central Southern England
- Energy: SSEN
- Water: Bournemouth Water, Portsmouth Water, Scottish Water, Southern Water & Thames Water.
London, South East & East of England
- Energy: UK Power Networks
- Water: Anglian Water, Affinity Water, Cambridge Water, Essex & Suffolk Water (part of Northumbrian Water), South East Water, Southern Water, SES Water, Thames Water
Midlands, South West & Wales
- Energy: Western Power Distribution
- Water: Bristol Water, Dwr Cymru (welsh) Water, Severn Trent Water, South West Water & Wessex Water
You can find additional tips to help with your utilities on our hardship hub.