Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MAY 2023 | 25 Customers use a seriously limited ow of energy, that should be treated as a disconnection, not a self-disconnection". Spike in at-home dialysis care sparks energy bill concerns People with chronic kidney disease are increasingly being sent home to continue dialysis care, leaving them with energy bills four times higher than average, an industry expert has warned. Sarah Oldman, head of a• ordability & vulnerability at Eon Next, was speaking dur- ing a panel session at the conference where she revealed her company had partnered with Kidney Care UK to understand more about the challenges facing those choosing to have treatment at home. There are currently around 30,000 people in the UK dependent on dialysis treatment and Oldman said the cost of living crisis was having a particular impact on these consum- ers in terms of their energy costs. She said: "We've seen a lot more contact from customers that have been sent to recuperate at home and particularly using dialysis machines. They are having to make exceptionally tough decisions at home about whether or not they run that machine overnight, because there's the cost of the energy. "It's very early days, but we're partnering with Kidney Care UK to try and understand this a lot more and how can we support those customers, because their bill is likely to be four times larger than an average property." Speaking to Utility Week following the event, Fiona Loud, policy director at Kidney Care UK, said patients receiving dialysis at home are entitled to payments from the NHS to reimburse the cost of energy used during treatment. However, she said that it has "always been really variable as to whether trusts pay anybody back, and how much they pay them back". She further explained that the charity has conducted research via various surveys into the process for patients. Loud added: "What we found out, of course, was that there's this enormous vari- ation in how much people get paid, how frequently they get paid, and whether they actually get their money reimbursed at all. "We really, really believe that people who need to use energy to stay alive should get a full, fair and timely reimbursement for that energy." The charity is also calling for utilities to better identify people with chronic kidney disease to potentially add them on to their Priority Services Registers (PSR). Loud said that as well as Eon, the com- pany has worked with network operator Electricity North West and water companies Anglian, Southern and Severn Trent – with dialysis also involving water use. Pete Holland, Anglian's director of cus- tomer & wholesale services, was also on the panel at Customer Summit. He explained that the company examined data from the O• ce of National Statistics on the prob- ability consumers in its area have di• erent types of vulnerabilities, with kidney disease being–listed. Holland said that a— er working with Kid- ney Care UK, Anglian saw a "massive shi— " in the number of customers going onto its PSR. "Literally thousands and thousands of customers went on to our PSR" he said. Energy retailers urged not to return to ' ght for lowest tari ' Energy retailers must not return to a "˜ ght for the lowest tari• " when pricing competi- tion returns, according to So Energy execu- tive director Charlie Davies. The company's co-founder said he was looking forward to healthy competition returning but urged the market to learn from previous mistakes. He said that instead of o• ering customers basement prices, retailers must ensure they are generating enough money to reinvest in research and development. "We all felt at the time, and we can all say with certainty now, that the way the market was before [the energy crisis] was unsustain- able," Davies said. "No one wants it to get back there." He added: "It has got to be a healthy mar- ket that enables retailers to invest in new innovation. "We've seen that over the years that you would have a budget allocated to innovation and trying new things but when you are con- stantly ˜ ghting against low marginal tari• s then that pot shrinks every year and nobody moves forward." Davies added that as well as being judged on their price points, retailers should be assessed against their sustainability creden- tials with increasing numbers of customers wanting to know where their energy comes from. He said this would help to avoid a race to the bottom where lowest price triumphs all else. "What customers look for in their retailer is going to be above and beyond an outright cheap tari• ," Davies said. "In the new world of energy we would like to see more of a focus on sustainability … that doesn't really feature on major consumer review sites such as Trust Pilot right now. They tend to focus on price and customer service but sustain- ability isn't really mentioned anywhere." South East to grow data sharing scheme South East Water has delivered savings of £500,00 for customers struggling to pay their water bills through a data share programme with local authorities. The company plans to expand the scheme, which auto-enrols eligible billpay- ers to a social tari• . It will work with two more local authori- ties within its region by the end of this year, building on the successes with three councils. Tanya Sephton, South East Water's cus- tomer services director, explained that the programme was designed to solve the prob- lem of low awareness of schemes. She told delegates that awareness and lack of trust were two major barriers for people accessing available help with water bills. The company worked with three local authorities to identify people in the area who would bene˜ t from support and auto-enroll- ing them onto a social tari• . Through the Digital Economy Act, local authorities informed the water company of customers who met eligibility criteria. South East then matched the information with cus- tomer data and enrolled householders to a social tari• . Sephton said around half of the custom- ers on the data match list were already on the company's social tari• . This meant half were not being reached through the water company's approaches. Of the remaining households need- ing support, around 25% have now been matched through the process, but the ˜ nal 25% identi˜ ed as needing support did not match the water company's data. She said there was a long, lengthy pro- cess to achieve this via the Digital Economy Act to ensure data-sharing and consent was legal. The act allows certain parties to share certain data for particular purposes, includ- ing water companies and local authorities addressing water poverty. There were teething issues using the data match process, including around trust. Sephton said billpayers who had been auto-enrolled contacted the water company fearful it was a scam because they did not believe it would be o• ering extra help. "There is no silver bullet to ensure cus- tomers can and do access support," Seph- ton said. "We have to keep plugging away to make sure support is there and easily avail- able to access." Adam John, senior reporter Main conference sponsors Associate sponsor

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