DNOs unfairly cast as villains of the piece

Every story needs a villain, and this winter, energy companies have conveniently provided the cloak-swirling, mask-wearing baddies that every politician and paper loves to hate. Never mind the distinctions between energy retailer and distributor, or between poor service and Acts of God. Ever since Ed Miliband took to the podium at the Labour party conference in September, energy companies have been public enemy number one, so it was no surprise that when storms hit over Christmas, Westminster and Fleet Street turned on the DNOs.

Following a slew of negative headlines and sound bites from the likes of environment secretary Owen Paterson, the chief executives of the networks were hauled in to see Ed Davey last week. The energy secretary scored the points he needed, ordering a review into the response to the storms.
For sure, some customers in remote areas were not reconnected quickly enough, and for any customers to have been without power over Christmas is a “fail”. But the rhetoric around this inquiry is grossly unfair. No-one could have predicted such severe and widespread storms – and certainly not over the holiday period. One of the main criticisms is that the networks did not have enough staff on standby over Christmas. But these are the very businesses that are being constantly told to drive down costs and now face a further squeeze on their finances (p16). How much would network charges have to rise to maintain a full workforce on double pay over all holiday periods?
The focus of the review will be on customer communications, acknowledged as an area for improvement. The network sector would do well to look to water, where the new customer challenge groups have delivered tangible results, influencing business plans and changing the way companies operate (expert view, p7, interview, p8 and roundtable, p18).
Networks are peopled by engineers, and communications are not always their strongest point. It’s fair to challenge that, and to create a more customer-focused culture. But the reality is that dedicated frontline staff gave up their holidays, worked round the clock and waded through floods to get to broken power lines. In this Christmas pantomime of heroes and villains, that seems to have been entirely forgotten.