Utility Week

Operations & Assets 24 | 11TH - 17TH JANUARY 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Utility Week Awards winner case study Utility of the Year 2018 Category sponsor: Capgemini Award winner: Anglian Water • Category title: Utility of the Year • Category sponsor: Capgemini • Award winner: Anglian Water • Annual company turnover: £1.2 billion • Employees: 5,000 • Customers: 6 million Entry criteria: 1. Customer satisfaction and engagement 2. Shareholder/owner's return 3. CSR and sustainability 4. Staff development (own staff and supply chain) 5. Stakeholder (including supply chain) relationship 6. Acting as an exemplar company; an ambassador for utilities that promotes trust and confidence 7. Innovation and/or evidence of business transformation within the past two years 8. How the company has outperformed 9. Statement detailing why the company deserves to win Utility of the Year The Utility Week Awards are held in association with Capgemini, CGI and Microso T he utility sector is under the spot- light like never before. In the past 12 months Anglian Water has system- atically, repeatedly and successfully tackled operational and reputational challenges, building on more than a decade of leading performance – most notably in leakage and service. The company says its approach is to inno- vate, learn and share, pushing the frontier for the whole industry while enabling the creation of a region in which it is a pleasure to live, learn and work. Years of insight and expertise were combined with half a mil- lion customer interactions to create its busi- ness plan for 2020-25, submitted to Ofwat in September 2018. It set out to tackle the challenges faced by the driest and one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Anglian Water is geographically the larg- est water company in England and Wales, supplying more than six million custom- ers. For more than a decade, it says, it has pushed the boundaries of operational excel- lence, resilience and efficiency, achieving leading positions in leakage and service, while recalibrating customer relationships with its Love Every Drop strategy. The company says its position gives it the responsibility to do more for custom- ers and its region, and this has never been more important than during an exceptional 12 months. Doing the basics brilliantly • Number one in service incentive mecha- nism (SIM), 2017/18, 15 years of upper- Anglian Water blazes a trail on performance In December, Anglian Water was named Utility Week's Utility of the Year for 2018. Here are some of the reasons why it walked off with this coveted award. What the judges said… Judges said the winning entry stood out for its strong leadership, business transformation, long-term thinking and all-round performance. They wanted to reward this company in particular for its proactive approach to dealing with some of the biggest issues facing utilities today. Water companies are high on the political agenda – and the winner recognised this and took action. It's a confident company, ready to get on the front foot without losing its focus on operational excellence. quartile service performance. • Most improved Compliance Risk Index score of any company over three years. • Event Risk Index of 10.8, less than 5 per cent the national average of 249. • One of industry's best drinking water acceptability complaint rates. • Catchment management approach to reducing metaldehyde recognised by DWI as leading. • Never subject to punitive DWI Transfor- mation Programmes. • 84 per cent blockage reduction in 2018 aer 2,000 Keep it Clear visits. • On track for four-star EA Environmental Performance Assessment. Leading leakage Anglian leads the industry, having cut leak- age by more than a third since privatisation to record low levels at half the national aver- age (water lost per km of main). Last year Anglian surpassed its target of 192Ml/d, achieving 183Ml/d. This contributes to a 10 per cent cut 2015-2020, to which the firm is adding a further 22 per cent by 2025. Weather challenges Anglian has exceeded its interruptions to sup- ply target every year in the current AMP, and in March successfully protected customers from the Beast from the East. Planning, resil- ience investment, industry-leading leakage, unique alliancing, excellent communications, plus a capable, motivated workforce, meant almost no customer impact from the cold. Operational resilience was again tested

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