Electricity Asset Management Plan 2019-2029
16 Vector Limited://
LISTENING TO OUR CUSTOMERS Vector has responded to these demand imperatives by developing a deeper understanding of customers’ changing needs, preferences and expectations. We have carried out market research, and employed smart analytics methods, across a wide range of data sources (for example, the census, council and transport data). This gives us greater customer insights. GREATER ACCESS TO SMART METER DATA We are also seeking greater access to our customers’ smart-meter data, so we can better integrate the low-voltage network into our overall view of the service our customers are experiencing. Right now, a significant challenge is that many distribution companies do not have ready access to smart meter data. This impedes the ability of networks to adequately respond to outages as they cannot ‘see’ faults at the household level. As a collective industry, it is clear there needs to be better sharing of secure information to deliver improved customer service and enable efficient investment. THE CASE FOR SHARED RESILIENCE Over the past year Vector has promoted more informed discussion on the different ways to deliver network resilience. Shared resilience solutions offer more control, security and choice for consumers – but are not necessarily grounded in traditional or centralised network investments. Vector will continue to do its part to ensure a reliable supply of energy for our customers by maintaining and reinforcing our assets where this is needed. But we also need to play a role in enabling customers to take more control by using the energy options becoming available to them. These options include solar and battery systems, and other forms of grid-edge distributed energy resources (DERs). These consumer-centric solutions give households and businesses greater control. They take less time to realise a financial return too, which can avoid burdening future generations with the costs of investing in traditional network assets that could become stranded. They also guarantee that consumers benefit directly from their ‘resilience’ investments, and provide extra benefits such as off-setting energy costs. Customers are increasingly willing to take control of their energy and this will change the way the energy market operates. We will continue to grow our understanding of how we prepare our network to actively facilitate this control.
PUTTING CUSTOMERS AT THE CENTRE
The way customers use energy is changing. Our homes and businesses are becoming more energy efficient, but at the same time, our lives are becoming more electricity dependent. This, coupled with Auckland growth, is increasing demand for electricity and the criticality of electricity will further increase with the electrification of transport. We can no longer assume the preferences of our customers fall along traditional demographic lines, such as urban and rural, residential and business, or a household of one versus a family of ten. Instead, it is becoming increasingly important to define specific customer archetypes and back this up with evidence. This level of detail is essential for planning and preparing our total customer experience. In recent years, digital service providers have launched services like streaming and ride-sharing that have taken the world by storm. Unshackled from the constraints of physical infrastructure, these companies have raised the service-level bar by providing intuitive, relevant and mostly friction-free experiences to their customers. Their services almost always come at a competitive price too. This shift has conditioned customers to expect a similar exemplary level of service at every turn, and will happen in electricity as well 5 . With the technology that is now available, Vector wants to go as far as it can in meeting its customer expectations.
Read more about our approach to customer service in ‘Delivering for our customers with urgency’, page 24.
5. Shell’s intent to become the world’s largest power company also serves to highlight the disruption in service provision and customer satisfaction coming to the electricity industry. ‘Shell aims to become world’s largest electricity company’; ft.com
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