Key performance targets

Customer service performance

Customer satisfaction 2023/24

As part of Ofgem’s Broad Measure of Customer Satisfaction, a research agency undertakes satisfaction surveys every month with around 350 customers for each of the 14 electricity network companies. Surveys take place with customers who have had an interruption to their electricity supply (planned or unplanned), applied for a new connection or contacted the company with a general enquiry. In 2023/24, NGED average customer satisfaction scores were as follows:

​Contact centre performance

Inbound 

Average speed of response

Outbound - Proactive

Complaints

NGED complies with the Complaints Handling Standards Regulations and an independent Energy Ombudsman service deals with unresolved complaints about energy companies.

NGED has a golden rule ‘–treat the customer the way you would like to be treated’. We aim to resolve all complaints from customers as quickly as possible without the need for the customer to take the matter to the Energy Ombudsman.

In 2023/24 seven complaints were referred to the Ombudsman for a decision.

Guaranteed standards of performance

Guaranteed Customer Service Standards are set out by the energy regulator, Ofgem. Our performance against the standards in 2023/24 is set out below.

Appointments

If we visit a customer for any reason, they will be offered an appointment during the morning or afternoon or within a two-hour time band. If we fail to make or keep that appointment we will arrange for the customer to receive a £35 payment.

NGED East Midlands made seven payments, NGED South West made six payments, NGED South Wales and NGED West Midlands both achieved 100% success.

Company fuse failure

If a customer loses supply due to the operation of their main fuse, we will visit within 3 hours on weekdays and 4 hours at weekends. If we fail to do so, we will pay the customer £35.

NGED South West made four payments, NGED East Midlands made three payments, and NGED West Midlands made two payments. NGED South Wales achieved 100% success.​​​​​​

Electricity supply failure

If our supply network fails we will restore supplies within 12 hours of the fault being reported during normal weather. (If a single incident on our distribution system affects 5,000 premises or more, we will restore it within 24 hours of first becoming aware of the problem).

If we fail to do so, we will pay the customer £95 (£180 for business customers). We will pay a further £40 for every additional 12 hours that a customer is without electricity. NGED South Wales achieved 100% success, NGED West Midlands achieved 99.9% success, NGED South West achieved 99.87% success, and NGED East Midlands achieved 99.85 success%.

If our supply network fails during severe weather we will restore supplies within 24 or 48 hours of the fault being reported. If we fail to do so, we will pay the customer £85. We will pay a further £40 for every additional 6 hours that a customer is without electricity up to a maximum of £2000.

NGED East Midlands made 1684 payments, NGED South West made 1346 payments, NGED West Midlands made 1005 payments, and NGED South Wales made 22 payments.

Multiple interruptions

If a problem on our system causes a customer to be without power for more than three hours, on four or more different occasions in a single year (from 1 April), they are entitled to a £95 payment. A customer complaint, if proved to be valid and made by 30 June for the previous year, will be treated as a GSOP failure payment.

NGED South West made three payments, NGED West Midlands made one payment, NGED East Midlands and NGED South Wales both made zero payments.

Notice of Planned Interruption to Supply

If we need to interrupt a supply for testing or maintenance, we will give the affected customers at least 2 days' notice. If we fail to do this, customers can claim £35 (£75 for business customers).

NGED South West, NGED West Midlands and NGED East Midlands achieved 99.9% success and NGED South Wales achieved 100% success.

Voltage complaints

If a customer contacts us about a problem with their supply voltage, we guarantee to reply to the enquiry within 5 working days or make an appointment to visit and investigate within 7 working days. If we fail to do so, we will pay £35.

NGED South West, NGED South Wales, NGED East Midlands and NGED West Midlands all achieved 100% success.

Our performance against the Connection Guaranteed Standards of Performance for 2023/24

NGED South West made sixty-two payments, NGED East Midlands made nineteen payments, NGED West Midlands made twelve payments and NGED South Wales made three payments.

Key performance targets

Please see below results for our key performance for 2023/24, in relation to network reliability, customer service and guaranteed standards of performance.

Network performance

We measure our performance in three ways:

Security of supply is the number of supply interruptions recorded as a percentage of customers connected in a year. We call this 'Customer Interruptions' (CI);

Availability of supply is the average number of minutes that a customer has their supply interrupted. We call this 'Customer Minutes Lost' (CML);

Restoration of supply is the percentage of customers restored in one hour if their electricity supply is interrupted due to a fault.

The energy regulator, Ofgem, utilises IIS (Interruptions Incentives Scheme).

Security of supply 2023-24

Availability of supply 2023-24

These figures are based on all interruptions lasting three minutes or more on the NGED network including those caused by bad weather, faults and 50% of those due to pre-arranged shutdowns. We exclude the impact of exceptional events, including severe weather.

Restoration of supply - Target 60

In addition to the performance reported to Ofgem, NGED has its own initiative called Target 60.

Target 60 is designed to ensure that as many customers as possible have their electricity supply restored within one hour of a HV fault.

For 2023-24 our performance against this initiative was: