The CEG has been very active over recent weeks, focusing on scrutinising the Company’s activities and plans, but also keeping abreast of industry developments, including some of our members taking part in Ofgem’s recent Vulnerability Summit, held on 24 April. Given that the cost of living remains a key customer priority, it is particularly important that we, the regulator and the industry understand the pressures customers face and that we as a CEG continue to challenge the company to do as much as possible to assist in every way it can – financially, in service provision and in practical measures.
We held our most recent bi-monthly meeting on 27 March at the Company’s Office at Doxford Park, where we were given a tour of the operations based there.
NGN’s CEO, Mark Horsley, joined online and gave an update on a range of key issues including the Redcar Hydrogen Village Trial, Health and Safety, Customer Satisfaction and Regulation. As ever, we had a number of questions for Mark. Non-Executive Director of NGN, Paul Rogerson, was also in attendance and observed our deliberations throughout the meeting.
We had asked for an update Biomethane and its current connections/use across the network , and we heard about the extent of the network, the operational and strategic challenges and priorities for 2023/24.
The CEG agreed to continue to monitor this important area of work by tying it into future deep dives on the environment. Deep dives are an important way of looking more closely into specific areas of the Company’s business and/or responsibilities and commitments.
In earlier meetings we had identified and discussed the importance of Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) and at the March meeting, received an update on the Company’s interactions with them and how this supports local resilience. Given the important role of LRFs, particularly during incidents involving a number of organisations, it was useful to hear about how they were working and NGN’s positive contribution.
We then moved on to customer satisfaction, which the company measures regularly, among other things, to help it improve its service to customers (and is a regulatory requirement). Generally speaking, the company currently scores highly, but we urged them to avoid complacency and among other things, felt it would be useful for the Company to hold a session of the Young Innovators Council to horizon scan on customer satisfaction and experience.
On stakeholder engagement, we discussed a number of proposed initiatives including possible ways of taking a whole system approach to net zero, which we felt would be useful.
We always conclude our sessions by reflecting among ourselves how the discussions had gone, and to discuss any key issues on the horizon – one important matter being preparation for the new regulatory period and the implications of any Ofgem and company decisions on the work of the CEG. Decisions will be taken in the coming weeks.
Finally, we are currently preparing our Annual Report, which will be published in the summer.