Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 23RD - 29TH MARCH 2018 | 25 This week Government in smart meter 'la la land' Chairman of Lords EU energy and environment committee says deadline will 'clearly not' be met The government has been warned it is in "la la land" if it believes the 2020 smart meter rollout target date can be achieved. The government has said every customer must be offered a smart meter by 2020. But during the second reading in the House of Lords of the Smart Meters Bill on 13 March, the chairman of the Lords EU energy and environment committee said the official deadline would "clearly not" be met. Lord Teverson said: "For goodness' sake let us admit it, get back from la la land into the real world and allow the industry, consumers and everybody else including the government to plan this sensibly." He was backed up by Lord Grantchester, Labour spokesman in the Lords on energy. Pointing to Which? figures estimating that 250,000 meters will need to fitted every week to meet the govern- ment's official cut-off date, he said: "The government must state whether the 2020 target is still realistic and whether offers being accepted will lead to fulfilment within the timeframe." Lord Teverson also accused the government of failing to keep control of costs at the Data Communications Company (DCC), the Capita-run body that has been tasked with setting up the smart meter infrastructure. He said the DCC's project management costs have gone up from £107 million to £374 million, while subcontractors' set-up costs have ballooned from £131 million to £948 million. DB ELECTRICITY Existing EVs could steer energy to grid Existing electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK could contribute more than 114MW to the National Grid – enough to power more than 300,000 homes. Research commissioned by OVO Energy suggests the figure could be achieved based on the current 19,000 Nissan Leaf EVs registered in the UK using new vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargers. But the study found nine out of ten Brits (87 per cent) are not aware that V2G technology could enable stored renewable energy from EVs to be sold to the grid during peak times. More than half (51 per cent) said they would choose an elec- tric car over a petrol or diesel model if they could save money in the long run. Tom Pakenham, director of electric vehicles at OVO Energy, said: "People are clearly keen to start their green journey, but a lack of knowledge means many are unaware of the full benefits of harnessing renewable energy." WATER UU makes online help more accessible United Utilities hopes to better support customers with learning difficulties, visual impairments or who speak a foreign language to access information online. The company has introduced an Accessibility Help feature enabling users to customise its website. Customers can select a different font, size or back- ground colour or get the content read out loud. They can also get the site translated into one of more than 100 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu. Louise Beardmore, customer and people director at United Utilities, said: "Two million people in the UK have significant sight loss and nearly three in 100 people have a learning disability. We want our customers to be able to find what they're looking for with ease." WATER Yorkshire calls for help with blockages Yorkshire Water has called on wet wipe manufacturers to do more to encourage customers to dispose of wipes in the bin. It said it is called out to more than 30,000 sewer blockages every year, costing £2.4 million, with 40 per cent of incidents caused by wipes that contain plastic and do not break down. Tom Phillips, customer ser- vice manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "We would like wet wipe manufacturers to increase the prominence of the 'no flushing' symbol on their packaging and let their customers know that wipes can cause blockages." In-home display: meter must be offered by 2020 I am the customer Jo Causon In today's business environ- ment, we see a world that is being disrupted by a complex mix of uncertainty, contradiction and turbulent change – and the utilities sector is not immune. More than 660,000 customers switched their electricity sup- plier in February 2018 – a 60 per cent rise on February 2017. At the Institute we know from our research that consumers do not switch purely for a better price, with a majority of us favouring a balance of service quality and average for customer satisfaction have achieved better revenue growth and higher levels of profit and employee productivity. Difficult times can open up considerable opportunities for those brave enough to embrace them. But this does require organisations to leverage cus- tomer service standards to drive up economic performance at a time when other supposed priori- ties are clamouring for attention. Jo Causon, chief executive, Institute of Customer Service affordability when it comes to choosing supplier. Given the importance of the UK's productivity – and the fact there is clear evidence that an investment in customer service could vastly improve the experi- ence of consumers, reduce costly complaints and achieve greater efficiencies for the sector – driv- ing a clear and focused service agenda is even more important. A recently published Institute research report demonstrates the link between customer satisfac- tion and business performance with hard financial metrics. Over both the short and long term, organisations that consistently perform better than their sector "Customer satisfaction equals better revenue growth"

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