ESNA - Energy Services Network Association - The Association of NES Users

Lord Mogg stated “We need to inject a customer-focus into the technical work being undertaken on behalf of consumers, be it network codes, energy efficiency, energy infrastructure regulation or wholesale markets, to make sure that customer needs are efficiently balanced against other objectives.”

Regulators call for a more holistic customer-focused approach

The London Forum itself could be used more to drive the process of putting customers at the heart of energy policy development. Lord Mogg called on London Forum participants:

to identify their priorities for the Internal Energy Market (due to be in place by 2014) so it works for consumers, and
to find ways to ensure that consumers can participate in these debates at the right time and right level.

And such a customer-focused approach shouldn’t be confined to the once-yearly London Forum.

Regulators call on the European Commission to wear its customer hat

Welcoming DG ENER’s new Retail Market unit, Lord Mogg suggested that the unit “take a profound look across all energy technical and policy areas of the Commission to make sure that the needs of energy consumers are a critical element of Commission proposals and that they translate into benefits for consumers”.
The European Commission should align the agendas of the Madrid and Florence Forum (which deal with technical gas and electricity issues respectively) to take account of the collective views of the London Forum so that the technical rules and policy now under development to deliver a single energy market reflect what consumers want and need from the process.

CEER champions customer interests and a demand response

CEER already promotes a more customer-focused approach, for example by analysing smart meters in terms of what minimum services they should provide to customers.
In a public consultation paper on demand response, CEER has identified the seven stakeholders who are the key enablers of demand response, and the different roles and responsibilities each must play in order to enable demand response which meets customers’ needs. Lord Mogg called on participants of the London Forum “to „collectively‟ take concrete action to develop consumers‟ role in demand response.”
In its belief that comparing prices needs to be simpler, CEER has prepared advice on price comparison tools to enable consumers to easily compare different price offers.
At the 4th London Forum (26-27 October), CEER presented regulators’ work in a number of areas including; customer empowerment and protection; smart metering and demand response; complaint handling; and on retail market design (see CEER presentations and Lord Mogg’s speech).