Energy retailer performance There are a number of reasons why a customer may contact their retailer. For example, customers may contact them to pay their bill, to ask about their bill or a better deal, to ask for payment assistance and sometimes to make a complaint. Price is important to customers, but so too is good customer service. This chapter discusses the customer experience with energy retailers, including: customer service and complaints assistance provided to customers with energy debt, such as energy concessions, payment plans and hardship programs the disconnection and reconnection of an energy service. Customer service Retailers’ responsiveness to inquiries and complaints is an important measure of customer service. Table 2.1 shows call centre responsiveness, specifically: percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds average time before a call is answered percentage of calls abandoned before being answered. Table 2.1: Phone calls to retailers in 2014-15, with percentage of calls answered in 30 seconds, average wait time and percentage of calls abandoned before being answered Retailer Calls taken in 30 secs (%) Average wait time (secs) Calls abandoned before being answered (%) ActewAGL 71% ▼7% 158 ▲16 4% ▲1% AGL 87% ▲2% 17 ● 2% ● Alinta Energy 77% ● 36 ▼7 2% ▼1% Aurora Energy 71% ▼3% 46 ▲12 3% ▲1% Blue NRG 97% ▼3% 30 N/A 3% ▲3% Click Energy 75% ▲6% 50 ▼7 3% ▼1% CovaU 93% ▲6% 3 ▼4 5% ▼4% Diamond Energy 100% ● 0 N/A 0% ● EnergyAustralia 92% ▲21% 9 ▼72 2% ▼4% ERM Power 94% ▲12% 12 ▼26 6% ▼8% Lumo Energy 86% ▲5% 19 ▼13 1% ▼1% M2 Energy 79% ▲2% 20 ▼16 3% ▲1%
The majority of retailers disconnected fewer than 2 per cent of gas customers in 2014-15. The exceptions were Simply Energy and QEnergy. ActewAGL also disconnected over 2 per cent of its gas customers in New South Wales. Table 2.10: Residential electricity customers disconnected and reconnected by retailers for non-payment in 2014-15 Retailer Disconnections (per 100) Reconnections (% of disconnections) % of reconnections that occurred within 7 days South Australia AGL 1.23 ▲0.02 43% 92% Alinta Energy 1.78 ▼3.06 31% 90% EnergyAustralia 0.55 ▲0.02 31% 75% Lumo Energy 0.87 ▼0.36 18% 100% M2 Energy 0.11 ▲0.11 0% - Momentum Energy 1.15 ▲0.21 89% 38% Origin Energy 1.75 ▲0.29 94% 54% Powerdirect 0.81 ▲0.13 63% 66% QEnergy 6.62 ▲6.62 11% 100% Red Energy 1.08 ▼0.06 25% 88% Sanctuary Energy 0.33 ▲0.17 100% 100% Simply Energy 2.39 ▲0.31 57% 77% TOTAL SA 1.36 ▼0.01 57% 72% ACT ActewAGL 0.22 ▲0.07 63% 89% EnergyAustralia 0.11 ▼0.46 17% 100% TOTAL ACT 0.21 ▲0.04 62% 89% Tasmania Aurora Energy* 0.45 ▼0.23 54% 87% New South Wales ActewAGL 0.53 ▲0.21 41% 98% AGL 1.81 ▲0.30 41% 96% Click Energy 0.78 ▲0.15 23% 95% CovaU 0.07 ▲0.07 50% 100% Diamond Energy 0.13 ▲0.13 100% 100% EnergyAustralia 0.27 ▼0.43 55% 90% Lumo Energy 1.18 ▲0.11 15% 100% M2 Energy 0.63 ▲0.54 24% 94% Momentum Energy 1.13 ▲0.37 71% 41% Origin Energy 1.20 ▲0.08 87% 62% Powerdirect 0.96 ▲0.58 53% 78%
QEnergy 4.29 ▲1.85 68% 44% Red Energy 0.65 ▼0.38 33% 70% Sanctuary Energy 0.29 ▼0.11 57% 100% Simply Energy 6.28 ▲6.08 50% 89% TOTAL NSW 1.06 ▼0.05 61% 75% * Excludes PAYG customers. Table 2.11: Residential gas customers disconnected and reconnected by retailers for non-payment in 2014-15 Retailer Disconnections (per 100) Reconnections (% of disconnections) % of reconnections that occurred within 7 days South Australia AGL 1.27 ▲0.32 39% 84% Alinta Energy 1.67 ▼0.47 30% 63% EnergyAustralia 0.43 ▲0.35 35% 75% Origin Energy 0.68 ▲0.21 53% 76% Simply Energy 2.62 ▲0.32 36% 58% TOTAL SA 1.12 ▲0.27 43% 75% ACT ActewAGL 1.25 ▲0.35 37% 77% EnergyAustralia 0.69 ▼1.20 21% 67% TOTAL ACT 1.20 ▲0.27 37% 77% NSW ActewAGL 2.48 ▲1.29 32% 64% AGL 0.72 ▲0.21 25% 80% EnergyAustralia 0.14 ▼0.01 22% 81% Lumo Energy 0.09 ▼0.58 6% 100% Origin Energy 0.75 ▲0.57 32% 59% TOTAL NSW 0.62 ▲0.20 27% 73% Tables 2.12 and 2.13 show the number of residential electricity and gas disconnections in each jurisdiction since 2009-10. Following successive years of increases, electricity disconnections in New South Wales slightly decreased in 2014-15. For the third successive year, over 10,000 electricity customers were disconnected for non-payment of electricity bills in South Australia. Around 32,000 electricity customers were disconnected for non-payment in New South Wales in 2014-15. Despite the increase in gas disconnections in New South Wales, the number of customers disconnected was well below the peak in 2011-12. Gas disconnections in South Australia increased to levels comparable with 2011-12.
Table A.10: Benchmark middle and high income households – summary of annual electricity and gas consumption levels Jurisdiction Annual electricity consumption (kWh) Annual gas consumption (MJ) Average household size (persons) Annual disposable income – middle ($) Annual disposable income – high ($) Queensland 5 800 10 000 2-3 70 883 188 385 New South Wales 5 900 24 000 2-3 73 705 208 902 Victoria 4 900 63 000 2-3 71 721 186 186 South Australia 5 100 21 000 2-3 61 640 163 290 Tasmania 8 800 N/A 2-3 58 446 147 953 ACT 7 500 48 000 2-3 98 363 210 392 Appendix 8: Map of electricity distribution zones Appendix 9: Map of gas distribution zones