Ofgem nod for WPD

Our commitment to meaningful stakeholder engagement was rewarded this year after it satisfied Ofgem’s connections criteria under the Incentive for Connections Engagement (ICE).

ICE requires Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to demonstrate that they have engaged effectively with connections customers to develop and deliver plans that improve their service each year through an ICE Workplan. If they fail to do this, DNOs could incur a significant financial penalty. 

Following stakeholder assessment of our ‘Looking Back’ report which details the year’s progress, Ofgem concluded that the overall feedback was positive, praising our recognition of customers’ needs and robust engagement strategy. 

We're not resting on our laurels though as Ofgem has highlighted that DNOs need to tackle some areas of engagement that could be of concern if not addressed in future years. 

Penny Carolan, our new ICE Co-ordinator, is responsible for the ICE project and is looking to drive further improvements and shape the connections customer service into RIIO-ED2. Looking ahead to future plans, Penny said: “The WPD 2019/20 ICE Workplan has been created with 42 committed initiatives, including four new ones, using input from connection stakeholders.

“The Workplan evolves as new requirements are identified. Our overriding strategic principle of ‘engagement leads to action’ is typified by the new initiatives. Our stakeholders have fed back on areas where their priorities have increased, such as the area of availability of information for distributed generation customers on planned outages and we are responding with new initiatives to improve our services and increase information.”