Vector Electricity Asset Management Plan— 2020 Update
2 – customers, stakeholders and service levels
Our customers continue to tell us that they want safe, reliable and affordable energy systems that empower them with choice and control. This means we have a responsibility to ensure our energy systems remain stable and robust, yet flexible enough to evolve in concert with changing customer behaviours. Keeping our broad range of stakeholders at the heart of what we do is key to achieving this. As part of the COVID-19 pandemic response, we continue to prioritise proactive communication with stakeholders through a proactive communications plan and are prioritising in particular the provision of information to customers. We are also co- ordinating and communicating with our industry partners and other external stakeholders specifically on this topic.
2.1
Customer engagement
Understanding customer needs and behaviours is core to delivering optimal network services with the customer at the centre. By leveraging behavioural and customer insights Symphony optimises the way that Vector delivers operational services to customers. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple channels builds our understanding of customer needs and behaviours, which then can inform the scheduling and management of planned outages to minimise disruption to customers, as well as our communications and digital strategies. One example of this from the last twelve months is how customer insights have informed the development of our recently-released, web-based outage map to show the location and the status of the outage to minimise customer impact. This is additional to the outage centre where customers are able to check if there is an outage in their area or report one themselves. Furthermore, based on their preferences, customers can also choose how they are notified when there is a planned outage. The application of behavioural insights is a dynamic and ongoing focus for Vector as we continue to explore opportunities for innovation and better solutions which put the customer at the centre. We continue to deepen community and customer engagement regarding planning and impact of operations to ensure optimal solutions and minimal disruptions for our consumers. One element of this is our Customer Advisory Board (CAB) – it provides a forum to engage with a range of customers directly and exchange information about the electricity network. Having greater access to our customers’ smart meter data, as discussed in the 2019 AMP is also an important element. We support the recommendation of the EPR for the Electricity Authority (EA) to expedite work to make it easier for networks and customers to access smart meter data. While we continue to work with metering businesses independently to have greater access to smart meter data, we look forward to the EA progressing this important work. We also support the EPR’s focus on strengthening the voice of customers, and the EPR’s recommendation to establish a Customer Advocacy Council to help ensure that the interests of customers remain at the centre of regulatory and industry decision making. We believe that the composition of this Council will be key to its success in providing a genuine voice for the customer, and we support fresh thinking which is informed by customer data analytics.
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