Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 12TH - 18TH OCTOBER 2018 | 29 Customers Companies under scrutiny Thames Water Steve Robertson, chief executive of Thames Water, says the company's report outlines how it will make a "step change" in the way it supports customers – especially those who are most vulnerable – "when we inevi- tably face similar challenges in the future". Robertson adds: "We have listened care- fully to our customers, stakeholders and regulators. We have also asked ourselves what we could have done better. The result is a comprehensive set of actions that will embed fundamental changes in the way we plan, forecast and manage incidents whether they are caused by a rapid freeze/ thaw or any other reason. Anticipating, preparing, communicating, managing, resolving, compensating, supporting our customers in the moment and in the aermath – all aspects of our incident management capability have been exam- ined. Actions to fundamentally improve our response have been put in place. "We cannot promise that a similar incident will not happen in the future. What we can promise is that our ability to manage the impact will be transformed." Severn Trent Severn Trent says it has structured its plans to improve its operational resilience around "Ofwat's helpful 'avoid, cope, recover' framework". "Our customers quite rightly expect us to be able to avoid, cope and recover from a wide range of weather and other scenarios, recognising that 'extreme' could be the new 'normal' and that historical experience and trends may no longer be a reliable guide for the future," the company says. The company adds: "We have sought to make sure that we have learned from our own experience and that of other compa- nies. We have also looked at best practice abroad in Denmark and Singapore and at home in the energy and airline industries." A spokesperson for Severn Trent says: "By putting in place the actions we've high- lighted in our report we're confident we'll reduce the likelihood of future weather- related events becoming incidents, and be better prepared for, and equipped to deal with, those that do. Southern Water A spokesperson from Southern Water says: "We are already implementing key improve- ment programmes to deliver significant changes to the organisation and enhance our overall operational resilience. "In developing our action plan, we have consulted with the Customer Challenge Group, (including Sussex Chamber of Com- merce) and CCWater and continue to develop improvements in our incident management plan with the local resilience forums. "We are collaborating with other organisations and Water UK and the Water Resources in the South East group (WRSE) in areas such as mutual aid, non-household retail, stakeholder engagement, bulk sup- plies, and bottled water provision. "We are committed to transforming Southern Water in order to achieve our ambition to create a resilient water future for customers in the South East." The company said the freeze/thaw event led to 7,700 (0.33 per cent) of its customers being without supply for up to four hours and 2,246 (0.01 per cent) of its customers were without water for up to three days. South East Water South East Water says it has published a 61-point action plan. Paul Butler, South East Water managing director, says: "We have listened to a wide range of views, whether that was from customers who were without water, our employees who volunteered at bottled water stations, or local resilience forums and community groups who helped us manage the alternative water supplies – and used their experience and suggestions to help build our action plan. "Importantly we have collaborated with others in the industry and we will continue to work with Water UK and other water com- panies to put our action plan into practice." South East Water says the dramatic change in temperature caused a significant increase in burst pipes, leaks and demand for water. This increase led to the draining of several of the company's service reser- voirs, which hold treated water, and in turn, saw 27,000 customers lose their tap water supply, with up to 6,000 of those having no water for more than 48 hours. egories: planning and preparation, stake- holder and customer engagement, and incident response (see box, le). Water UK has also identified priorities for further "collective action" to comple- ment what is already being done by compa- nies. For each priority identified in its report – Learning from the impacts of the 2018 freeze-thaw – Water UK outlines actions for companies collectively to take forward over the next 12 months, with emphasis on action in the shorter term. The programme of activity needed will be overseen by a newly formed "operations strategy group" comprising senior opera- tions leaders from water companies. The trade body says quarterly progress reports will be published and a fuller 12-month review of what has been achieved will be carried out by the end of September 2019. "The impact of the Beast from the East varied across the country, with Ofwat's offi- cial report revealing that fewer than 3 per cent of all customers were affected," says Michael Roberts, Water UK's chief executive. "But we're sorry to say that in some areas some significant numbers of customers experienced disruption and hardship, and we are determined to prevent this happening again in the future," he adds. "That's why we are committing to collec- tive action alongside the measures which companies have already put in place, to ensure that the industry is in a far better place to deal with extreme weather this win- ter and beyond." The day before water companies submit- ted their improvement plans to Ofwat, the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) pub- lished new guidance for the water sector. It included suggestions on how companies can improve the way they deliver priority support to consumers in vulnerable circumstances. The document referenced the severe cold weather in March, which put a "spotlight on the water sector". CCWater said consumers who found themselves in vulnerable circum- stances were among the worst affected dur- ing the incident. The vast majority (93 per cent) said they did not get any extra support. Tony Smith, chief executive of the Con- sumer Council for Water, says: "Water com- panies need to prove that they have listened to consumers and really learned lessons from the service failures we witnessed in March. "Customers will want to know that these plans are tested and ready, and we'll be expecting a tough response from Ofwat should any of the company plans fail, or fur- ther problems occur in future." Ofwat intends to publish a response to the reports by mid-November.

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