Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
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UTILITY WEEK | 5TH - 11TH SEPTEMBER 2014 | 7 Jo Causon will speak about the potential implication of declining customer service at the Utility Week Congress on 14 October. In particular she will explore the utility sector's bottom ranking on the UK Customer Service Index. Causon says: "I see customer ser- vice as a predictive indicator. Therefore, when you consider that, overall in the UK customer service levels are declining, alongside the fact that around 78 per cent of our GDP is generated by service and that about 70 per cent of people work in cus- tomer facing roles, this is really critical and worrying." People & Opinion Utility Week community Speaker's corner Jo Causon, chief executive, Institute of Customer Service Personal notes: What have been the best and worst times in your career? Best: It's a great privilege to be in my current role. Because I get to work with companies across a diverse range of sectors I get some unique insight. It interests me that while the context a business is operat- ing in may change, the challenges are oen the same. Worst: I've enjoyed all the roles I've worked in through good times and bad. There have been tough decisions to make though. Deci- sions associated with restructur- ing a team or a business can be unpleasant but are also impor- tant. You can only hope to keep in mind the purpose of the organisa- tion and deliver that against your own values on these occasions so that there is a clear rationale. Which five people would you invite to your ideal dinner party and why? Barack Obama: He is genuinely respected and approaches his responsibilities with a good measure of diplomacy. He is also a great orator. Martin Rees ( Astronomer Royal): I was always amazed, as a layman in the world of chemistry, physics and astrophysics, by his ability to explain the most com- plex issues in a way that would make them real for me. Dame Maggie Smith: She's played a wide variety of incredible roles and has great presence but also a great sense of humour. Stephen Fry: He questions and challenges in equal measure and is very charming. He also has a history of rebelliousness. He'd give my other guests a run for their money! Bob Geldof: He is passionate about the purpose of the job he has in hand and always focused on delivering results. He is a true activist and has great powers of persuasion. Name four things on your desk: Things for helping me keep tidy, a lot of paperweights that have been given to me as gis, a photo of my sister and a plaque from my Mum which says: "As soon as the rush is over I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. I've worked for it, I've earned it and nobody is going to deprive me of it!" That's debatable: Ofgem's supply market indicator "The supply market indi- cators help consumers to understand the relation- ship between their bill and the different costs faced by suppliers." Angela Knight, chief executive of Energy UK, and Ofgem on the publication of the regulator's supply market indicator. Read Ofgem's market indicator analysis at bit.ly/SMIOfgem "We call upon Ofgem to only use accurate figures, to stop issuing estimates which are so often misun- derstood, misinterpreted and can be misleading." Disruptive utilities news from around the globe Fossil fuel independence by 2050? Professor Henrik Lund, of Aalborg University, believes Denmark could be independent of fossil fuel by 2050. At the 21st International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering he explained how plans to increase Denmark's reli- ance on wind power from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by 2050 could result in a fossil fuel free society if intelligently paired with flexible energy conversion and storage. Lund has written a book laying out his ideas for a smart energy system in Denmark titled Renewable energy systems – a smart energy systems approach to the choice and modelling of 100 % renewable solutions. Super grid for energy security in Africa The Nigerian minister for power, professor Chinedu Nebo, has submitted a plan to the African Energy Leaders Forum outlining initiatives to address electricity supply challenges. He wants the creation of an African supergrid with robust transmission networks, together with large-scale investment in renewables to help protect security of supply in remote communities in Africa. Global energy-water nexus in the spotlight Global leaders from the water industry converged on Stockholm this week for World Water Week. This year the event focused on issues arising from antagonistic forces at play in the world's energy and water industries. Torgny Holmgren, executive director of the Stockholm Inter- national Water Institute, which organises the event, said water and energy are at once "inextricably linked and interdependent". Find out more about the event at www.worldwaterweek.org BRAVE NEW WORLD The main event Find out more about the 2nd Annual Utility Week Congress at: www.uw-congress.net