Our Customers and Communities

The Energy Charter

The Energy Charter is a whole-of-sector initiative to deliver more affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all Australians.

We are involved in the following industry-wide projects:

• Cost of Living Supports
• Disaster Resilience
• First Nations Engagement
• Knock to Stay Connected
• Know Your Customers and Communities
• Landholder and Community Special Licence
• Life Support.

As a signatory to the Charter, we are also committed to embedding a customer-centric culture based on the Charter’s five principles, and publicly disclosing how we are delivering against these principles. Our 2022-23 Disclosure Statement, which details our performance, was shared with our Customer Advocacy Group and Essential Peoples Panel for review and published on our website in September 2023 for public comment.

Customer strategy

We are bringing our Customer Strategy to life by finding ways to better understand our customers and incorporating this information into our everyday decision making.

To support the strategy, we have:

• engaged with customers and stakeholders to develop a new incentive scheme for customer service performance included in our 2024-29 Regulatory Proposal
• committed to sharing more customer stories across the organisation to help our teams understand customers’ concerns
• developed a new data model that will build a deeper understanding of how customers are using our products and services; will enable improved, customer-focused decision making; and will improve our level of service by helping us to tailor our offerings to customer needs
• started to develop a new approach to gathering customers’ perceptions of Essential Energy’s performance via an automated survey and sentiment capture program.

Over the past year, the increasing cost of energy, combined with general cost of living pressures, had a significant impact on customers and our customer metrics. Our Customer Satisfaction Index moved from 80.7 (quarter four 2021-22) to 75.9 (quarter four 2022-23) across the course of 2022-23, with customers citing affordability as a key concern.

Customer meter reading service

Following a successful trial, we are now offering a ‘read my meter’ option to customers whose property is difficult to access. This enables customers to submit their own meter readings via a secure web-based application.

Customer service performance

National Energy Customer Framework

Essential Energy is committed to improving customer service and safety as defined by the National Energy Retail Law and Rules. In 2022-23, no immediate nor quarterly reportable breaches were reported to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).

Customer Contact Centre performance

Our Customer Contact Centre received 244,222 calls during 2022-23. On average, these were answered within 50 seconds, an improvement on 61 seconds achieved in the previous year. 54 per cent of customers used our self-service automated interactive voice response (IVR) to obtain outage information during the year.

Translation services

During 2022-23, we provided interpreting services to two customers in two different languages at a total cost of $58.08. No employees use their language skills in their daily roles or receive the NSW Community Language Allowance Scheme (CLAS) allowance.

Complaints to the Energy and Water Ombudsman

During 2022-23 the Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW received 2.8 complaints per 1,000 customers in relation to Essential Energy. This is a decrease from 3.0 in 2021-22 and 3.6 in 2020-21.

Customer Advocacy Group

Our Customer Advocacy Group (CAG) has been helping us to support regional communities for more than 25 years. Meetings, held four times each year, provide an open forum for discussion. Members provide feedback and insights directly to our business decision makers and relay information back to their constituents, organisations and communities.

Members represent:

• residential, rural and remote customers
• primary producers and small business, industrial and commercial customers
• low-income households, vulnerable customers, senior citizens, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• local government.

CAG organisations include:

• Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)
• NSW Farmers
• Cotton Australia
• Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA)
• Business NSW
• Caravan & Camping Industry Association NSW
• Ethnic Communities Council NSW (ECCNSW)
• Country Womens Association
• Community representative, rural/remote customers
• Local Government NSW
• Tenants Union of NSW

We are seeking representation from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and environmental, advancing technologies and renewables groups.

Essential Peoples Panel

The Essential Peoples Panel is a new customer council which allows Essential Energy to engage directly with customers on issues relevant to residential and small business customers such as pricing and affordability, reliability and resilience, and customer service and communication. Panel members include a diverse group of customers from across our network footprint. The panel met for the first time in July 2023 and will meet regularly throughout the year.

The Panel complements our existing Customer Advocacy Group.

Partnering with local councils

Scheduled monthly meetings provide an opportunity for us to strengthen our relationships with the 86 local government councils across our network area. We hear directly from the executive management teams and mayors about potential areas for improvement and discuss how we can work together more effectively for our communities. Across 2022-23 we held scheduled monthly meetings with 39 councils.

Public safety

Essential Energy is committed to ensuring that everyone can live and work safely around our electricity network.

As part of the Public Safety Strategy, our Public Electrical Safety Awareness Plan aims to raise public awareness about safety hazards associated with the electricity network, focusing on seven at-risk groups: general public; aviation; transport; agribusiness; building; emergency services and public authorities including local councils.

During 2022-23 we approved a Public Safety Treatment Plan after a formal risk assessment identified agribusiness and general public incidents as key areas of concern. This plan defines accountability for strategic actions, highlights ways to improve existing controls and identifies three new controls to reduce public safety risk.

The number of public safety incidents in 2022-23 fell by 12.4 per cent compared with the previous year, reversing a three-year upward trend. Reported injuries fell by 27.5 per cent compared with the previous year and 7 per cent over the previous three years. Incident numbers in 2022-23 were down by 5.5 per cent in general public, 8.7 per cent in agribusiness, 25 per cent in transport and 46 per cent in aviation.

Agricultural safety

To gain a better understanding of how agricultural workers perceive and respond to electrical risks we are working with the Centre for Work Health and Safety, the research arm of SafeWork NSW, on a project specific to the agricultural industry. These insights will help Essential Energy and the broader electricity industry to reduce incidents where agricultural machinery comes into contact with the network, by developing effective technical and educational interventions. Field work began in July 2023 and the findings are due in July 2024.

In line with the Public Safety Treatment Plan, targeted messaging and education were shared with the agribusiness community during 2022-23.

This included entering a partnership with the NSW Farmers Association to deliver electricity safety messaging and connect directly with the agribusiness community.

Additional campaign activity was delivered via industry-specific digital and print channels, such as The Australian Farmer and NSW Farmguide. Our teams also attended industry events to share important safety information with communities and hold discussions on the ground. Messaging focused on safety around the network during grain and cotton harvest and the installation of aerial markers on power lines through our free installation initiative.

We also continue to maintain our ongoing partnership with Aerial Application Association of Australia to promote aerial markers, which benefits the agribusiness and aviation at-risk groups.

Loss of supply risk management

The Energy Network Australia (ENA) Asset Management Council, chaired by Essential Energy, partnered with CSIRO in 2021 to investigate the community safety impacts of loss of supply at times of heightened fire-risk conditions. CSIRO concluded that there was insufficient data to develop a quantitative model and proposed development of a prototype evaluation methodology. The working group agreed and work is expected to recommence in August 2024. The outcomes will help network operators balance employee, public and bushfire safety during these conditions.

Safety video for emergency responders

In 2022, Essential Energy, Ausgrid, Endeavor Energy and Transgrid collaborated on an Emergency Services Electrical Safety video which provides information on how to remain safe around the electricity network during emergency response. The video was released on the Essential Energy YouTube channel in February 2023 and is helping to educate emergency responders, including the Rural Fire Service, State Emergency Service (SES), Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Police and NSW Ambulance.

Summer safety campaign

During 2022-23 we ran a summer safety advertising campaign to share important warnings and messages on how to remain safe around our network during severe weather conditions. The dynamic execution of key creative messaging triggered by dangerous/extreme weather conditions was delivered via digital Apps Weatherzone and Willyweather to affected communities. More than one million advertising impressions were served between December 2022 and March 2023.

Electricity Safety Week

Electricity Safety Week, held annually in September, raises awareness among primary school students of electricity hazards and teaches students how to be safe around electricity. Schools are provided with curriculum-aligned teaching resources, developed in collaboration with the Department of Education. In September 2022, 890 schools (98 per cent of primary schools from our network area) registered for the program.

Giving to community groups, charities and stakeholders

We empower local communities across our network area through a range of funding opportunities. Organisational and employee giving supports community groups, charities and stakeholders.

The Essential Communities Sponsorship Program includes: Community Choices; Community Support; and the Essential Giving Program.

We also partner with stakeholders and community organistaions and provide scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

A total of $726,973 was provided to more than 130 community groups, stakeholders and charity organisations during 2022-23.

Community Choices

Community Choices provides charities, not-for-profit groups and community groups from across our network area with up to $5,000 to boost their activities. Groups are nominated by the community and selected via online voting that is open to all members of the public.

The 2023 program saw 510 nominations received and almost 170,000 votes were submitted. Funding was awarded based on the highest number of votes within 20 geographic zones and two funding categories:

• standard zone funding – first to third place allocations in each of the 20 zones, ranging from $2,750 to $5,000
• small communities funding – one $1,250 funding allocation for each of the 20 zones for groups who reside in a community with less than 10,000 people.

A total of $250,000 was shared by 80 community groups.

Community Support

Community Support provides funding to community groups that make a difference in their local communities. This year $59,750 was provided to 33 groups across our network area.

Essential Giving Program

Essential Giving Program (EGP) is our workplace giving program, supporting eight charity partner organisations: Garvan Institute; Variety Childrens Charity; Lifeline; Can Assist; Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service; ozED (Australian Ectodermal Dysplasia Support Group); the Childrens Tumour Foundation; and Royal Far West.

Employee EGP donations through regular pre-tax payroll deductions are matched by Essential Energy. In 2022-23, $73,364 was donated by employees. Dollar matching included an additional donation to each charity partner, for a total donation by Essential Energy of $146,728.

The EGP also provides dollar matching for employee-initiated fundraising (up to $500 per request), with applications reviewed by an employee and management representative committee. $20,988 of employee-initiated fundraising was supported, plus $2,375 dollar matched by Essential Energy.

The EGP company total in 2022-23 was $243,455.

Partnerships with community organisations

We support Uniting Financial Counselling (UFC) to deliver an Energy Support Program focused on tailored, one-on-one advice and assistance to electricity customers in regional NSW who are struggling with issues of energy affordability. During 2022-23 we provided $60,000 to UFC.

We partner with the Clontarf Foundation, which aims to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. We provided $40,000 to Clontarf during 2022-23.

We also partner with the Stars Foundation, which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls and young women to attend and remain engaged at school, complete Year 12 and move into work or further study. This partnership did not involve funding during 2022-23.

We are a partner of the Thriving Communities Partnership, which seeks to contribute to and implement policies, practices and initiatives that result in tangible improvement in the lives of people at risk of experiencing vulnerability. The annual membership is $10,000.