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Western Power Distribution (WPD) has achieved the top position for the fifth year running as part of the Stakeholder Engagement and Customer Vulnerability Incentive.

The Incentive has been expanded under the current Regulatory Business Plan period, known as RIIO-ED1, to include social obligations, looking at how network operators such as ourselves identify and address issues for vulnerable customers such as fuel poverty.

The three-stage process involved a published submission, an independent audit and a face-to-face panel interview.

The company successfully demonstrated that engagement with 3,500 stakeholders last year led to the delivery of 112 outputs which offered better customer service. In the last 12 months, we also initiated a range of social obligations activities resulting in £1.4m cost savings for over 6,000 customers. Additionally, over 120,000 Priory Service Register (PSR) customers were supported during power cuts, with half a million PSR records updated.

As part of the Customer Vulnerability audit, WPD was rated as number one among all network operators and achieved the highest score in every category assessed, with positive comments from auditors including ‘better data has enabled WPD to improve their customer satisfaction rating as a result of better prioritisation of consumers’ and ‘WPD provided over 30 examples of how members of their staff went above and beyond to deliver to the specific needs of a vulnerable customer’.

“This is a huge achievement for our company," said Alison Sleightholm, Regulatory and Government Affairs manager. "Stakeholder engagement is only of value if it leads to actions and every part of the business has played a part in delivering actions and outputs in this submission. This success was achievable because everyone in the business recognises the importance of engaging with customers and stakeholders to deliver continuing improvement in service.”

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