Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 5TH - 11TH OCTOBER 2018 | 27 Good Energy has been awarded a contract by Oxfordshire UNE- SCO World Heritage site Blen- heim Palace to supply 100 per cent renewable electricity. Under the deal, the green supplier will meet all electric- ity demand at the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the palace's pleasure gardens, Park Farm, the new estates office in Woodstock and its on-site bottling plant. ENERGY Good Energy wins Blenheim Palace renewables contract It also includes the Windrush Industrial Estate, which will allow third-party businesses based there to meet their own sustainability commitments. Over the next decade, the palace hopes to become a net generator of green energy. It has also invested extensively in pho- tovoltaic panels, biomass boilers and a hydroelectric turbine. Wiltshire-based Good Energy has been working with Blenheim since 2011 to support its on-site renewable business. Jacqueline Gibson, sustain- ability adviser at Blenheim, said: "Blenheim is on track to reducing its consumption of energy, meeting energy demands with renewables and, in time, to becoming our very own green energy supplier. Earlier this year, Blenheim This week Four suppliers face complaints scrutiny Ofgem survey reveals more complainants are satisfied than in 2016, but they remain a minority First Utility, Ovo Energy and Utilita are being scrutinised by Ofgem for their "poor handling" of customer complaints. The regulator has opened compliance cases into the com- panies aer its 2018 complaints- handling survey. It is also expanding recent compliance discussions on com- plaints-handling with Scottish Power through a compli- ance case which includes the results of the survey. Ofgem also requires all the other domestic suppliers surveyed – British Gas, Npower, Utility Warehouse, SSE, EDF Energy, Eon and Co-operative Energy – to prepare improvement plans that describe how they will deal with complaints, and to provide appropriate updates. The survey of more than 3,000 complainants found that satisfaction has improved since the last survey in 2016, with 32 per cent of domestic customers happy with the way their complaint was dealt with, up five per cent. However, the proportion of customers who are dis- satisfied (57 per cent) remains higher than those who are satisfied. Reasons include the time taken to resolve the issue and not being kept up to date with progress. First Utility said the "vast majority" of its customers were happy, but conceded there were still some areas "in which we could be better." Ovo said it would use the survey findings to establish the reason for its ratings. A Utilita spokesperson said the company had over- hauled its complaints-handling processes since the sur- vey, and Scottish Power said it would work with Ofgem as it rolled out new processes and training. Ofgem stressed that the opening of these cases does not imply the regulator has made any findings about non-compliance by the suppliers. KP WATER 'Innovate to protect customers at risk' The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) suggests "collabora- tion, communication and con- sistency" are three ways water companies can improve the way they deliver priority support to vulnerable consumers. New guidance published by the water watchdog references the severe cold weather in March this year, which put a "spotlight on the water sector". Widespread disruption to the network in the aermath of the "Beast from the East" le more than 200,000 people without water for up to four days. Ofwat's review into the sec- tor's response during the freeze and thaw required four water companies – Thames Water, Sev- ern Trent, Southern Water and South East Water – to submit an externally audited action plan of how they will address the issues identified. CCWater said vulnerable con- sumers were among the worst affected during the incident. The vast majority (93 per cent) said they did not get any extra sup- port from their company. The watchdog's good practice guide advises that water com- panies should collaborate with other organisations. It suggests the sector needs to open wider channels of commu- nication and deliver consistent access to services for vulnerable consumers all year round and not just in a crisis. CCWater said: "Although all water companies operate schemes that customers can register for which provide free additional support, known as Priority Services Schemes, many customers reported finding themselves in vulnerable cir- cumstances either unexpectedly or temporarily during March's freezing conditions." ELECTRICITY More set to switch this year than last Almost 1.5 million customers switched electricity supplier over the summer months despite the prolonged high temperatures. In August just under half a million customers (494,839) switched, an 11 per cent increase on the same period last year. The total number of electricity switches so far this year is more than 3.7 million, which Energy UK said is on course to beat last year's record of 5.5 million. In August, 41 per cent of switches were from large to small and mid-tier suppliers and 11 per cent were from small and mid- tier to larger suppliers. In total, 31 per cent of switches were between larger suppliers and 17 per cent were between small and mid-tier suppliers. The net gain by small and mid-tier suppliers was 152,348. According to the latest research from the Energy Switch Guarantee, confidence in switching is high, with nine in 10 customers saying they were happy with the process. Happy complainants are still a minority introduced its green electric vehicle fleet and, more recently, the "Twizy Tours" experience, which lets visitors explore the estate and its surroundings in the electric vehicles. In August the palace received a Gold Green Tourism Award with a score of 88 per cent which put it in the top eight per cent of high-scoring businesses worldwide.

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