Utility Week

12 | 27TH MARCH - 2ND APRIL 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation Analysis Battling quarantine Events in this unprecedented crisis are unfolding fast and many utilities – like the population at large – are struggling to make sense of what each development means for them. Challenges for companies to get to grips with dur- ing this surreal period range from overcoming remote working problems for employees, to understanding impacts on important planned maintenance regimes for infrastructure and the outlook for major industry pro- grammes – such as smart metering – which require con- tact between utilities personnel and the public. For energy and water retailers there are also some very live concerns around cash flow and their ability to continue collecting from businesses and consumers who may have been suddenly thrown into financial melt- down as a result of government measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. Key workers As this article goes to press, at least one important issue was settled when utility workers were formally included in the list of "key workers". The designation is important because key workers are allowed to continue to send their children to school, while everyone else has been required to keep their chil- dren at home. With more and more employees being forced to self-isolate, lifeline service providers do not want further reductions in workforce availability because of childcare challenges. Another major issue occupying the minds of a range of sector leaders is the timeline for making coronavirus testing technology available to utilities – both in terms of tests for individuals currently carrying the virus and those who may have contracted it and subsequently recovered or been asymptomatic. A water company chief executive told us that the abil- ity of employees to return to work with confidence a…er experiencing coronavirus symptoms is "critical to main- taining public health". On a more mundane, but nonetheless important, issue Utility Week heard from industry expert and former regulator John Scott that energy networks will be begin- ning to consider how to alter their regular summer main- tenance regimes without affecting network resilience. He explained that networks generally begin an annual Many experts expect coronavirus to trigger a fresh bout of supplier failures in an already fragile marketplace process of planned maintenance a…er the switch to Brit- ish Summer Time – which this year falls on 29 March – which includes taking key equipment offline. However, he warned: "If you start depleting the net- work and then you have critical staff shortages it might be harder to return equipment to service quickly if there's a problem." Meanwhile, many technology vendors have been vig- orously extolling the benefits that advanced condition- monitoring solutions and equipment automation can now demonstrate to companies that need to deploy field workers with the utmost care and avoid all but the most critical of maintenance operations that require equip- ment to be out of service. Challenges for utility retailers While infrastructure owners work out how to keep kit in good shape, potentially without recourse to tradi- tional maintenance options, some energy retailers are struggling to keep lines of communication open with their customers, causing one supplier chief executive to accuse peers of "giving up on customer service" in the midst of this national crisis. The CEO said that some market participants are turn- ing away customer calls, telling them not to get in touch unless there is an emergency. Such cases provide a nota- ble contrast, he said, with other more culturally and technologically forward-thinking suppliers that have long since had the ability for contact centre agents to pick up queries from home. The technology laggards are all too likely to cause con- sumer detriment, the industry leader implied, because a rapidly increasing volume of customer contacts to their "public health concerns might mean fewer installations in the coming weeks," despite a rollout trajectory that would otherwise expect a significant ramp up in installations in the same period. It's a logical conclusion to draw given the advice that government has issued on home working and reduced social contact, and some industry leaders have suggested that a halt should be called to the smart meter pro- gramme while such guidance is in place. Other market participants disagree and have argued that proactive suppliers can find ways to press ahead with installations – per- haps even increasing their success rates with first time install visits while so many con- sumers are now working at home. One supplier CEO said that they had invested in hazardous material suits for meter technicians – not only so that they could act to ensure any vulnerable or infected custom- ers with supply problems were reinstated as swi…ly as possible – but also so smart meter installations could go ahead. It's hard to imagine consumers being comfortable with hazmat-suited meter tech- nicians entering their homes, but many pre- viously difficult-to-imagine scenarios have come to pass in recent weeks. continued from previous page

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