Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 28TH FEBRUARY - 5TH MARCH 2020 | 29 Almost 450,000 customers switched electricity supplier in January, according to figures published by Energy UK. In total 446,750 customers changed supplier in a month which has traditionally been slow for switching, a 17 per cent increase compared with the same period last year. Of all switches, 35 per cent were from larger to small and ELECTRICITY Almost 450,000 make electricity switch in January mid-tier suppliers, and 16 per cent were from small and mid- tier to larger suppliers. Meanwhile 26 per cent were between larger suppliers and 23 per cent were between small and mid-tier suppliers. Last month Ovo completed its £500 million deal to acquire the retail arm of SSE Energy. Trade body Energy UK said Ovo and SSE will be treated as one company for future figures. It said it was liaising with Ofgem so it is in harmony with the regulator's definition of the companies and their switching figures. Energy UK added that Eon and Npower will be treated as one company soon, as the latter is absorbed into the former. Audrey Gallacher, Energy UK's interim chief executive, This week Water sector battles through the storms Water companies have spent two weeks dealing with the fallout from storms Ciara and Dennis Water companies have been picking up the pieces in the wake of storms Ciara and Dennis – with staff in the worst affected areas working around the clock to restore supplies, repair broken pipes and pump flood and sewer water away from homes and businesses. Severn Trent (SVT)'s catch- ment area was arguably one of the worst affected. Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Worcester and Gloucester were all hit by rising rivers and sewers. In Nottinghamshire the company worked with the Environment Agency and others in an area where homes were cut off for more than two days by floodwater. Tank- ers and pumps were used to move the excess water. More than 1,000 incidents were raised by customers across the region. In South Wales, Welsh Water lost access to one of its water treatment sites a›er it flooded. The company said the plant at Mayhill, Monmouth would be cleaned, sterilised and tested before it went back on-line. A fleet of 40 tankers was used to remove water, they also helped maintain supply to most households. Bottled water was provided to customers who lost supply. Vulnerable customers were encouraged to sign up to the priority service register. United Utilities prepared extra resources including generators, fuel, water tanker drivers and bottled water. A 100-metre section of pipe that crossed a river at Shap was washed away. It served about 8,000 homes in Eden Valley in Cumbria. UU used 45 water tankers to pump supplies directly into the water network while engineers replaced the damaged pipe. It distributed 144,000 bottles to households during the incident. RW ELECTRICITY Ofgem to investigate WPD's PSR record Ofgem has launched an investi- gation into Western Power Dis- tribution's (WPD's) obligations to its priority service register customers. WPD is the electricity net- work operator which covers the Midlands, South Wales and the South West. The energy regulator is look- ing into whether the network operator is complying with rules about updating and provid- ing information to vulnerable customers on its priority service register (PSR). Under the licence conditions, network operators have various obligations to customers on the PSR. These include a duty to establish and maintain a PSR, a duty to give information and advice to PSR customers and a requirement to publicise the reg- ister's services and procedures. Ofgem stressed that its open- ing the investigation does not imply that it has made any find- ings about non-compliance. WATER CCW sets out advice on bill complaints Customer complaints about water suppliers have fallen by 70 per cent since the peak in 2007/08, but problems relating to billing, metering disputes and debt recovery persist. In its paper Getting the Measure of Billing and Debt Complaints, CCW – formerly the Consumer Council for Water – sets out best practice and case studies that highlight ways the water industry can settle bill dis- putes and tackle debt recovery. The paper showed that bills and charges have consistently been the root of most grievances over the past decade, with about 50 per cent of issues in that category. According to CCW's research, this directly influences customer perceptions of fairness and value for money. CCW said companies should address the root causes by offering households a transi- tional period when switching to a meter, flagging bill spikes and communicating changes to proactively avoid disagreements, reading meters frequently and making regular contact with bill payers. Carl Pegg, head of consumer relations at CCW, said disputes over bills and debts continue to cause anxiety for many bill pay- ers, despite the fall in numbers. "Getting the basics right with bills is essential but companies also need to invest more time and resources in getting to know and understand their customers and the individual challenges they face," Pegg said. Disputed liability queries caused the majority of com- plaints over the past five years and with more households being metered each year, companies were encouraged to anticipate problems and prepare customers for any unexpected changes to bills. Ciara and Dennis wreaked havoc in the UK said: "January has traditionally been a slow month for switch- ing so a figure of nearly 450,000 customers shows that momen- tum is continuing following a record 2019. "On average, there were 12 switches every minute last year." Last year a record number of customers switched energy sup- plier, with 6.4 million consumers making the move.

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