Utility Week

Customers 28 | 27TH SEPTEMBER - 3RD OCTOBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has written to four water companies urging them to improve their handling of customer complaints, despite an overall drop in complaint num- bers. Almost half of all contact related to billing and charges, but the sharpest rise was those related to water supply, with a 28 per cent year-on-year rise to 19,564. Complaints about WATER Four companies warned by water watchdog over complaints sewerage issues were up by 11 per cent, while those concerning metering fell 2.3 per cent. All companies received fewer written than telephone com- plaints. Written complaints rose by almost 8 per cent from 69,324 to 74,689. Four companies – Thames, Hafren Dyfrdwy, Northumbrian and Essex & Suffolk – were con- tacted for exceeding CCWater's trigger point. Each received more than 25 per cent above the industry average for telephone and/or written complaints per 10,000 connected properties. Northumbrian and its sub- sidiary Essex & Suffolk received more complaints mainly due to the implementation of a new billing system. Written and telephone com- plaints to Thames rose 24 per This week Fuel poverty target 'needs more funding' National Energy Action warns first target will be missed without funding for energy efficiency The government will miss its first target for cutting the number of households living in fuel poverty unless the Treasury allocates more money to tackle the prob- lem in the upcoming Budget, campaigners have warned. Responding to the Depart- ment for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's recent revi- sion to its Fuel Poverty Strategy, National Energy Action (NEA) described as "disappointing" the decision not to commit any further funding to energy efficiency in last month's spending round. The Committee on Fuel Poverty, the government's own statutory adviser on the issue, has calculated that £1 billion must be allocated by 2021 to achieve the Fuel Poverty Strategy's first milestone that all fuel-poor homes should be improved to EPC Band E by 2020. The response, seen by Utility Week, recommends allo- cating a further £1.8 billion from 2022-25 to achieve the second 2025 milestone to bring such homes up to Band D, en route to the statutory target of Band C by 2030. NEA's response said: "Without taking advantage of upcoming fiscal events this year, the first milestone will be missed and over 160,000 fuel-poor households could still be living in the least efficient homes by 2020 in England and the delayed cost of inaction will further backload delivery of the 2030 statutory target." NEA backs the government's proposal in the draž strategy to replace the existing measure of fuel poverty with the simpler LILEE (low income low energy effi- ciency), which says that all households living in proper- ties with a rating of Band D or below should be classed as fuel poor if they are pushed below the poverty line by power bills. DB ENERGY Ovo Energy pledges to halve customers' carbon footprints Challenger supplier Ovo Energy, which recently acquired the retail arm of SSE, has pledged to halve its customers' carbon footprints by 2030. At an event hosted at the Tate Modern in London last week, chief executive Stephen Fitzpat- rick unveiled Plan Zero, Ovo's strategy to transform its busi- ness and cut carbon emissions. The plan sets out how it will mobilise its customers to form a "zero-carbon community", helping them to eliminate their household emissions by 2030 – two decades earlier than the government's net-zero commit- ment. The company confirmed to Utility Week that the pledges would cover the customers it is taking on from SSE. Plan Zero comprises six commitments: • Help customers halve their carbon footprint through mobilising them as part of a zero-carbon community; • Achieve net-zero carbon operations underpinned by science-based targets set for emissions associated with powering and heating Ovo's buildings and fleet and off- sets for the remainder; • Optimise five million homes with flexible, low-carbon technology; • Fight the climate crisis and advocate for greater action on climate change; • Unify staff around plan zero; • Take customers on its "low- carbon journey by being the most trusted company in the UK". ELECTRICITY Deal agreed to extend RTS scheme Code administrator Elexon has brokered a cross-sector agree- ment regarding the recovery of radio teleswitch service (RTS) operational costs. From March 2020, the scheme will be funded directly through the balanc- ing and settlement code (BSC), which is managed by Elexon. The RTS allows energy suppliers to offer time-of-day electricity tariffs using radio signals, broadcast through existing BBC infrastructure. There are currently some 1.4 million customers with RTS metering, concentrated in the East Midlands and Scotland. Previously, RTS operating costs were funded by distribu- tion network operators through the Energy Networks Asso- ciation. However, that contract ends in March 2020 and for the past 18 months all sides have been considering a solution to keep the RTS system operational until at least March 2021. Elexon CEO Mark Bygraves said: "Following discussions with Energy UK, in July 2019 Elexon convened industry rep- resentatives to agree a solution for operational RTS costs to be recovered from BSC parties, post- April 2020, through existing BSC cost recovery arrangements." Fuel Poverty Strategy: £1 billion needed by 2021 cent and 10 per cent respectively. Thames said the cold winter and hot summer created a "perfect storm that had an unacceptable impact on its customers". Hafren Dyfrdwy saw a steep rise in complaints relating to new bill layouts. Written complaints rose 154 per cent, working out to 47 per 10,000 connections – the most received by any company.

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