Customer commitments

About usCustomer experienceCustomer commitments

Every day, we move power to and from more than 1.2 million homes and businesses.

For the first time, we’re publishing a set of customer commitments to further demonstrate that our customers are at the centre of everything we do.

Our customers’ expectations for what we deliver are greater than ever before. Customers want more than just safe, reliable and affordable electricity – they expect us to empower their energy choices, and deliver services important to their communities and the environment.

Our five-year investment plans recently approved by the Australian Energy Regulator reflect these expectations. Through consultation with our Customer Advisory Panel and our customers, we have developed measurable commitments that align with these plans. Commitments are also closely linked to our vision and cover themes of affordability, reliability, safety, empowering choices and environment.

We have tailored our commitments to each network to reflect our customers’ different needs, and will monitor and adapt these as expectations change over time. Importantly, we will be publicly reporting on the progress of each commitment over the next five years.

Where we are performing well, these measures will hold us to account to make sure we sustain that level of performance for our customers. Where we can do better, these measures will ensure we continue to question and challenge everything we do in our business to and improve further.

These commitments are what will drive our business to stand out from the pack as a customer centric organisation, and give customers the confidence that we deliver on the promises we make.

CitiPower customer commitments

Affordability

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will have the lowest urban residential distribution tariff costs in Victoria, and remain in the top 5 most affordable electricity networks in Australia	You will have the lowest supply charges of any comparable network in Australia. These charges include the distribution costs to operating, maintaining and managing the network of poles, wires and smart meters that deliver electricity to you.
We will assist customers in identifying savings by empowering them to better use their energy consumption data, including delivering energy literacy and bill support programs to 1,000 of our vulnerable customers per annum.	You will have resources available to you to view how your home has been using electricity over time, manage your power costs and take control of your energy bill.
We will continue to measure and benchmark ourselves against competitors and publicly demonstrate initiatives that reduce charges over time.	You will have access to value for money, market tested services that we will continue to invest in improving.

Safety

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will inspect 100% of our powerlines for vegetation encroachment through aerial services and targeted ground inspections each year, up from a 2 year cycle.	We will further reduce the risk of fire and power outages affecting you through more regular inspections, taking action to remove encroaching vegetation where needed.
We will ensure 100% of asset inspection and maintenance activities in high bushfire risk areas are up to date prior to and throughout every declared bushfire season.	You can be confident that our poles and wires have been inspected prior to the declared bushfire season, and that the processes and procedures we have in place prioritise the safety of our network.

Reliability

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will sustain more than 99.95% supply availability.	You will live in one of the highest performing electricity networks in Australia, experiencing high levels of supply availability with minimal off-time.

Empowering customer choices

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will retain and develop our in-house regional based Australian 24/7 contact centre to provide fast and efficient customer experiences.	You will be able to call us at any time, any day of the week and speak to one of our highly trained service agents based here in Victoria.
We will ensure all key campaigns and communications are accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and will translate all communications to the top 5 languages other than English in our network region.	You will be able to access our key campaigns and communications in the language that you are most comfortable with.
We will connect all customers wishing to install rooftop solar and ensure 85% of all solar customers can export excess energy into the grid 85% of the time.	You will be able to reduce your environmental footprint by connecting rooftop solar for self consumption, and we will invest in our network so you can get more out of your investment in solar.

Environment

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will conduct an environmental or native vegetation assessment as part of every applicable project and take action to minimise our impact and provide a cleaner environment for Victoria.	When we complete a project on our network, you can be confident that we have considered the environmental impacts and are committed to reducing the risk wherever we can.
We will proactively share residential solar installations and capacity metrics to transparently demonstrate how we are enabling customer DERs and export growth.	You will be able to access information that demonstrates how we are investing in our business to enable solar growth across our network.
We will develop and execute an Electric Vehicles (EV) strategy, working with our communities to trial new tariffs to see what charging mechanisms deliver the best long-term outcomes for customers.	We will work collaboratively with you and your communities to ensure we are ready for rises in EV take up and have tested mechanisms and tariffs to ensure the best outcomes for you.

Powercor customer commitments

Affordability

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will have the lowest rural and urban residential distribution tariff costs in Victoria, and remain in the top 5 most affordable electricity networks in Australia.	You will have the lowest supply charges of any comparable Network in Australia. These charges include the distribution costs to operating, maintaining and managing the network of poles, wires and smart meters that deliver electricity to you.
We will assist customers in identifying savings by empowering them to better use their energy consumption data, including delivering energy literacy and bill support programs to 1,000 of our vulnerable customers per annum.	You will have resources available to you view how your home has been using electricity over time, manage your power costs and take control of your energy bill.
We will continue to measure and benchmark ourselves against competitors and publicly demonstrate initiatives that reduce charges over time.	You will have access to value for money, market tested services that we will continue to invest in improving.

Safety

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will inspect 100% of our powerlines for vegetation encroachment through aerial services and targeted ground inspections each year, up from a 2 year cycle.	We will further reduce the risk of fire and power outages affecting you through more regular inspections, taking action to remove encroaching vegetation where needed.
We will ensure 100% of asset inspection and maintenance activities in high bushfire risk areas are up to date prior to and throughout every declared bushfire season.	You can be confident that our poles and wires have been inspected prior to the declared bushfire season, and that the processes and procedures we have in place prioritise the safety of our network.

Reliability

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will sustain more than 99.95% supply availability.	You will live in one of the highest performing electricity networks in Australia, experiencing high levels of supply availability with minimal off-time.
We will reduce our annual planned outages by 1.5 million customer minutes across the Powercor network relative to our historical annual performance over 2015-2020.	Through investment in our processes and procedures, you will experience shorter planned outages, less frequently, compared to previous years while we complete necessary work on our assets.

Empowering customer choices

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will retain and develop our in-house regional based Australian 24/7 contact centre to provide fast and efficient customer experiences.	You will be able to call us at any time, any day of the week and speak to one of our highly trained service agents based here in Victoria.
We will ensure all key campaigns and communications are accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and will translate all communications to the top 5 languages other than English in our network region.	You will be able to access our key campaigns and communications in the language that you are most comfortable with.
We will connect all customers wishing to install rooftop solar and ensure 85% of all solar customers can export excess energy into the grid 85% of the time.	You will be able to reduce your environmental footprint by connecting rooftop solar for self consumption, and we will invest in our network so you can get more out of your investment in solar.

Environment

Our commitment	What this means for you
We will conduct an environmental or native vegetation assessment as part of every applicable project and take action to minimise our impact and provide a cleaner environment for Victoria.	When we complete a project on our network, you can be confident that we have considered the environmental impacts and are committed to reducing the risk wherever we can.
We will provide certainty for large renewable generators (like wind and solar farms) and will target project delivery completion for the connection point within the timeframe agreed with the developer.	We will help accelerate Victoria’s program to deliver reliable and sustainable electricity through renewables.
We will proactively share residential solar installations and capacity metrics to transparently demonstrate how we are enabling customer DERs and export growth.	You will be able to access information that demonstrates how we are investing in our business to enable solar growth across our network.
We will develop and execute an Electric Vehicles (EV) strategy, working with our communities to trial new tariffs to see what charging mechanisms deliver the best long-term outcomes for customers.	We will work collaboratively with you and your communities to ensure we are ready for rises in EV take up and have tested mechanisms and tariffs to ensure the best outcomes for you.