Shared PSR ‘may not be possible’ yet, Ofgem chief admits

A cross-sector, shared PSR “may not be possible” in the near future, Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley has conceded.

Brearley made the case for an integrated PSR while speaking at a vulnerability summit at the QE2 Conference Centre in London, adding that a joint register spanning multiple sectors “will much more effectively serve the needs of the customers who need the most help”.

However he questioned how quickly a shared PSR can be delivered and casted doubt over whether the current systems “to manage, track and store information on vulnerable customers [are] really fit for the 21st Century”.

He said: “We should all consider building towards a joint register, not just between water and energy, but including wider sectors and potentially local and national government, such as data held by the Department for Work and Pensions […] Ideally, this joint register would be based around a ‘tell us once’ principle – where families who have vulnerabilities tell one agency about this and, with permission, this is shared across the others with a single, reliable source of data to anticipate, identify, and respond to the needs of those customers.”

However, Brearly warned that complex policy and technical issues means that “this ambition may not be possible, at least in the short run”.

Peter Smith, director of policy and advocacy at charity National Energy Action (NEA), told Utility Week that plans to create a universal, cross-sector PSR could go some way to addressing low uptake of services such as free gas tests.

He said: “At the moment households often have to repeat pretty sensitive information in order to access financial or non-financial support from their energy supplier.

“That causes them a lot of mental distress and it can be very time consuming for them. So driving up greater consistency and standardising the way we capture financial vulnerability information, as well as wider non-financial vulnerability, is really important.”

Using the lack of take up of free gas safety checks as an example, he further stressed the need for the sector to ensure more eligible customers take advantage of services available to them.

He added: “One of the most pressing areas that we would like to see addressed is the really low level of awareness particularly for free gas safety checks by energy suppliers.

“Some low income and vulnerable households are eligible for free gas safety checks, but the volume of those has been really low and that’s very, very concerning given that lower income households who own their own property might not be able to service heating appliances regularly and could be at risk of direct carbon monoxide exposure, irrespective of their age or ill health. So it’s a really important area, from our perspective, to be enhanced.”

Dhara Vyas, deputy chief executive of Energy UK, said: “The priority services register has played an important role in helping to identify customers in vulnerable situations, and there is a lot of value in sharing information between utilities to make sure that people that need additional services can access them, and that it’s as easy as possible for them to make themselves known.

“In this digital age, we are keen to explore better ways to both identify vulnerability but also to understand and acknowledge the transient and specific nature of vulnerability. Even within a specific category, not everyone’s circumstances will be the same, not everyone will need the same support.

“Modern services – especially essential services – should be able to understand and support people, and any sort of support mechanism that relies on data should be flexible to respond to changing circumstances of our customers and the rest of their households.”

Last month, Energy UK independent vulnerability chair Steve Crabb revealed that a shared PSR would go live at the end of March, with distribution network operators (DNOs) and water companies across England and Wales combining their respective datasets.