Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 6TH - 12TH DECEMBER 2019 | 21 Operations & Assets Operations & Assets achievement for the team. We are very pleased with the technical performance of the plant, which has exceeded design targets." The plant secured a one-year capacity market agreement for this winter in the replacement T-1 auction held in June. If you have an asset or project you would like to see featured in this slot, please send pictures and details to: paulnewton@fav-house.com. Market view Prepare for extreme weather complaints As temperatures plummet, complaints will soar, so you should prepare for the surge now, says Alex Prentice. W hile just about any organisation can deflect a certain level of responsibility and blame the weather for poor performance, the reality is that utilities sup- pliers really are at the mercy of extreme weather conditions. Such events can put a huge strain on many aspects of the business's operations – espe- cially its customer contact function. It is for this reason that hav- ing robust processes in place to ensure a swi- and effective response to any operational surge can make a big difference to customer outcomes. Being quick to respond should result in a boost in customer loyalty and brand advocacy. In con- trast, businesses that don't get their act together quickly follow- ing an extreme weather event could suffer from a flood of complaints, defecting customers and, potentially, performance penalties from regulators. Last month, experts at University College London (UCL) issued a first-of-its-kind extended-range weather fore- cast for central England and predicted that Britain should prepare for the coldest winter in a decade. If their forecasts are accurate, it could mean wide- spread disruption and a chal- lenging set of conditions for suppliers to navigate. It's time to act now, before the temperatures plummet. Perform root cause analysis The first step for firms is to review their root cause analysis framework to ensure it is effec- tively identifying opportunities for both issue reduction and pro- active resolution. Once the framework has been re-evaluated, the data should be used to pinpoint issues that have caused or contributed to spikes in complaints so they can be mitigated. Consider whether your business has appropriate contingency resource ready to be deployed to respond to customer contact surges, for example. Or whether you have appropriate technology, security and even basic infrastructure in place. Even something as simple as slippery walkways outside your headquarters or frozen pipes can mean delays and setbacks for your operation. Have you man- aged and diversified the risk by having a multi-location opera- tion, for example. Businesses must also ensure that their approach is in line with their regulator's expec- tations around the fair treat- ment of customers. It should go without saying that customers should be central to any plan- ning or remediation activity, a-er all. Businesses that don't take this approach will only fan the flames of customer frustra- tion, leading to greater spikes in the future. As part of their preparation, it is important that utilities pro- viders take a long, hard look at their resource ahead of the win- ter months and ensure processes are in place that will allow them to flexibly up-scale resource in the face of operational stress. Keep lines of communica- tions open at all times and explore the use of technology – for example, automatic updates or smartphone "push notifica- tions'"– and integrate these into your current processes. Alex Prentice, sector lead, Huntswood

• Cover