Great to read a good service story.

I know that there are priority lists held for households with vulnerable customers in them.  Perhaps your household is on a separate list with Scottish Power headed 'internet influencer' that puts you in the VIP lane? 😉 

Well done to Scottish Power for doing a good job. Well done, too, to @editor for taking the time to recognise it. Not everyone does well fixing something that’s broken and not everyone acknowledges it when they do.

@majordennisbloodnok honestly, it was genuinely refreshing. Proper, old-school customer service… calm, proactive and human. When I compare it to the frankly awful attitude we’ve always had from Severn Trent in the past (there was a period a few years back where water outages were happening every six weeks), the contrast couldn’t be starker. This was really good.

Maybe DNOs have quietly decided to up their game. Who knows. Let’s see if it continues.

The two engineers who came out to scout the valleys looking for the fault were a delight as well… articulate, knowledgeable, polite, professional, engaging, competent and genuinely helpful. Honest about the challenge of finding the fault just people doing their jobs properly.

If anything, it really brings into sharp focus just how low the bar for customer service has fallen just about everywhere else and how noticeable it is when an organisation actually puts the effort in.

Posted by: @editor

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If anything, it really brings into sharp focus just how low the bar for customer service has fallen just about everywhere else and how noticeable it is when an organisation actually puts the effort in.

That sums up pretty well my view in another related company - Octopus. They’re simply interacting with their customers in an honest, open and well organised way, and along the way have gained a reputation for amazing customer service. It’s a sad endictment on all the others that doing what a reasonable person should be able to expect is seen as outstanding.

In your case, SP have definitely gone beyond the reasonable expectations and so certainly deserve the shout out from you. Let’s see if they’ve started a trend; I certainly hope so.

Posted by: @editor

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Maybe DNOs have quietly decided to up their game.

I think their response is genuine, and becoming increasingly common amongst DNOs...
... with the possible exception of UKPN in SE England.

DNO's also now have a role to work as a Distribution System Operator (DSO).

That requires them to to take a wider view than just maintaining their own wires and transformers.

At one end of the scale they'll be discussing strategies with commercial and community-based generation organisations,
and at the other end they'll be interacting directly with consumers and parish councils.

During 2026 the next tranche of RIIO-ED contracts will be written.
RIIO-ED3 will be the agreement between each DNO and Ofgem, starting in April'27.

It will describe the base level of service they must achieve in order to satisfy their right to make charges which appear on our bills.

It also lists additional revenue which they can obtain by going above-and-beyond.
That's an incentive to act in ways which really benefit us consumers, despite them having a monopoly position.

How I wish such a mechanism existed for water companies!

For the first time ever, the proposal is for the RESPs to write the RIIO-ED contracts.
Well, that's what NESO are telling us.

I don't think the NESO webinars have delivered anything like enough information to allow RESP participants to undertake that task.
The expertise required is mainly within the DNOs, who have previously held seminars with Councillors and Consumers to advise them on what we'd like to see included.

I would like to be pleasantly surprised that NESO's proposed methodology works ok and creates RIIO-ED3 contracts which

• encourage more community energy initiatives
• incentivise innovation
• create greater system resilience

but what I'm currently seeing from NESO falls short of allowing such targets to be included.

To be fair, the interactions I’ve been having recently with UKPN have also been constructive. Let’s see how things progress.

Posted by: @transparent

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I think their response is genuine, and becoming increasingly common amongst DNOs...
... with the possible exception of UKPN in SE England.

My in-laws returned to the UK last night after a break overseas (not the greatest timing in the world). They leave near Crowborough (in a rural setting) and they woke up this morning to no power and water. Madness.

We've relayed our story to them about Scottish Power, so I'll be interested to hear what their experience is like with UKPN. 

As an aside, they travel quite a lot, and it's always remarkable to hear how many 6-10 hour power outages they have. 

@majordennisbloodnok, do you experience outages?

Outages here, @editor, are infrequent - probably once or twice a year, perhaps fewer. However, a work colleague who lives about 15 miles away sees them as a weekly occurrence and was quite offhand when mentioning earlier this week of getting three in one night. I’d say the UKPN experience is rather varied.

Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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Posted by: @editor

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If anything, it really brings into sharp focus just how low the bar for customer service has fallen just about everywhere else and how noticeable it is when an organisation actually puts the effort in.

That sums up pretty well my view in another related company - Octopus. They’re simply interacting with their customers in an honest, open and well organised way, and along the way have gained a reputation for amazing customer service.

Exactly what came to my mind. Octopus is one of the few where the employees will explain where they have a limitation or challenge to address whatever issue it may be. Refreshing specially in the odd case where it was not organised.

Posted by: @batpred

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Posted by: @majordennisbloodnok

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Posted by: @editor

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If anything, it really brings into sharp focus just how low the bar for customer service has fallen just about everywhere else and how noticeable it is when an organisation actually puts the effort in.

That sums up pretty well my view in another related company - Octopus. They’re simply interacting with their customers in an honest, open and well organised way, and along the way have gained a reputation for amazing customer service.

Exactly what came to my mind. Octopus is one of the few where the employees will explain where they have a limitation or challenge to address whatever issue it may be. Refreshing specially in the odd case where it was not organised.

 

Agreed, which is no more nor less than a customer should be able to expect. It's a pity that seems to be an exception, not a standard.

@transparent 

Grid resilience is becoming a bigger topic given the increasing reliance on electricity for heating... This thread may be appropriate for a discussion? 

Posted by: @transparent

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Posted by: @editor

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I really feel that there are way too many power cuts in the UK.

Firstly I know how to reduce the number of power cuts, in which we can make a difference.

Secondly, this is another instance of customers in SE England being treated differently by their DNO to those of us living elsewhere.
That DNO is UK Power Networks, which appears to be operating outside the norms which other DNOs implement.

UKPN seems progressive in many respects (arguably on approval of G99 exports) but there are other electricity quality issues that some in the community are experiencing, including power outages. 

Do you see scope for more tight management of micro generators? 

Posted by: @transparent

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The DNO 'UKPN' is more than 75% owned by UK Power Networks Holdings Ltd. which has 10 of its 14 listed Directors based in China.

UK Power Networks Holdings Ltd. is between 25% to 50% owned by Cki Number 1 Limited.

Cki Number 1 Limited is more than 75% owned by Cki Number 2 Limited

Cki Number 2 Limited is more than 75% owned by Cki Number 3 Ltd.

Cki Number 3 Ltd is owned by Ck Infrastructure Holdings Limited, which is based in Bermuda.

All companies in that chain substantially share the same directors.

In effect it's an international financial company which holds an Ofgem Licence to act as DNO for three regions in England.
Whatever gets discussed at Board level is unlikely to have much to do with power outages in East Sussex or Kent!

This is very interesting. When you mention China, is that mainland or Hong Kong?