To make sure the strategic direction we are taking is right, to hear challenge and feedback – specifically on our charter and the commitments we want to make to stakeholders – and finally to understand any other issues to help us develop a focused engagement plan for the next year.
You told us that while you’d seen an improvement in our response times to issues, you welcomed the 4-hour response time we have built in to the GD2 plan. However, the 4 hours needed to be man on the ground rather than acknowledging problems as it was crucial to minimise downtime
Considering this feedback, NGN have now implemented a 4-hour response time dependent on operational requirements, or next day including weekends and bank holidays. This change is now in operation for any future faults that require NGN attendance. We hope that the change will enable developers to maximise injection into the network.
During discussions around the CV condition-based monitoring, it was clear that you had some concerns around changes in the CV target and with the high CV in our network.
Whilst we have systems in place to smooth out any dramatic changes in CV, in response to this feedback, we will undertake a review of specific concerns and have committed to review the target CV strategy.
There was a high level of support for our proposed charter, outlining a series of commitments and promises we will make to our biomethane customers, specifically commitment to ongoing engagement with our biomethane stakeholders. However, you said you would like a clearer commitment around the levels of engagement.
Taking this on board we have committed to delivering annual operational liaison meeting reviews through the Network Entry Agreement and a strategic end to end review including customer service and future development. We will also hold two conferences/workshops per year with producers (including an annual workshop) to ensure we focus our efforts on areas that will deliver greatest benefit for our customers.
You said as well as day-to-day operational support you also wanted someone with a more strategic end-to-end overview who would have an overarching view of customer satisfaction.
In response we have implemented strategic key account management alongside a day-to-day operational account manager to deliver a more strategic end-to-end overview and formally clarified who the key account managers are, their roles and the internal and external escalation process.
You told us it would be useful to get periodic updates on NIC and NIA projects, from the network’s perspective, so potential change can be planned for.
We will make this a standing item on future sessions and provide regular updates on projects.