Management of the Hungarian Energy Office - Magyar Energia Hivatal

hungarian energy office
Service quality
With regard to the resolution of HEO issued for the
distribution licensees on 1 January 2004 and amended in April
2005, concerning the ‘determination of the minimum quality
requirements of natural gas distribution, and the expected
quality level of supply’, HEO issued 5 amendments to the
resolution for the fi ve licensees having the largest customer
base. New resolutions were issued for 3 licensees with smaller
client bases as well. The new and the modifi ed resolutions set
the required values of the operational reliability indicators for
the years 2009 and 2010.
Instead of issuing resolutions concerning the ‘determination of
the minimum quality requirements of natural gas distribution,
and the expected quality level of supply’, HEO issued a total
of 9 supply quality resolutions on client service in 2009 for
distribution licensees and universal service licensees. The
resolutions – in line with the directives that have already
worked out in the electricity industry – defi ne requirements
on personal, written, and phone-based customer relations.
Requirements can be classifi ed in three groups depending on
what consequences are drawn if they failed to be fulfi lled.
The fi rst group includes the minimum quality requirements
that – if not observed – lead to the imposition of fi nes. The
second group contains indicators in accordance with the
statutory provisions, and characteristic for the activities of
the licensee, defi ning expected quality levels of supply. The
third group contains the monitoring-type indicators, which
provide information for HEO
for the future fi ne-tuning of
the regulation. The maximum
amount of fi ne to be imposed
if requirements are not fi lfi lled
may be HUF 50 million, or
HUF 100 million depending on
the extent of discrepancy.
In 2009, HEO prepared for
the fourteenth time the study
measuring the satisfaction of
the customers with distribution
licensees and universal service
(public utility supply)
licensees. In the course of collecting the data,
the opinion of 7400 household consumers and
2400 industrial customers was surveyed. The
methodology of the survey was identical with
the procedure applied in 2008, thus the results
obtained can also be compared numerically,
directly. The transformation of the licensees –
although the content and the method is the same
– required HEO to issue 5 new resolutions in
order to establish the base of the survey.
The aggregated results suggest that 2009 did
not bring any signifi cant changes relative to
the trends perceived so far. The customers’
priorities are still the uninterrupted supply
and the precise consumption metering from
among the activities of the distribution
annual report 2009 | 40
licensees. The majority of customers were satisfi ed with these
services in 2009 as well. With regard to the responsibilities
of the universal service licensee, the quick and professional
administration at client services, understandable bills and
the availability of complaint possibilities were considered
important by customers. Similarly to the previous year, the
satisfaction values of understandability of bills, complaint management
and the availability of call centres lagged behind the
expected values.
Interruptions
The consumers expect continuous supply, i.e. a uninterrupted
availability of natural gas. Pipelined natural gas supply are
certainly accompanied by various coincidental or planned or
otherwise caused interruptions. Interruptions can be caused by
breakdowns on the one hand, and by maintenance or other
reconstruction works, on the other hand. The quality of the
physical process of pipeplined natural gas supply can be
assessed and demonstrated by the cause, time and duration of
interruptions.
The development of the number of interruptions is depicted
in Figure 11 based on the data of Table 16. The Figure
shows that the consumers were affected by the interruptions
to an increasing-decreasing extent. The proportion and
absolute number of the outages where the suppliers were
directly responsible increased in the fi rst half of the period,
Description/year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Number of events causing
interruption
2 862 3 138 3 924 2 802 2 103 2 049 2 368 1 666 1 410
Within which: interruptions
due to breakdown
Number of interruptions
2 532 2 604 2 988 2 424 1 786 1 848 1 953 1 440 1 173
with direct responsibility
of suppliers
1 473 1 312 1 607 1 090 989 853 847 705 760
Within which: breakdowns
with direct responsibility
of suppliers
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Table 16 Frequency of breakdowns
1 222 894 933 731 743 738 707 574 614
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Number of events causing interruptions
Number of interruptions with direct responsibility of suppliers
Thereof the number of breakdowns with direct responsibility of suppliers
Figure 11 Quantitative data of the events causing interruptions in natural gas
supply between 2000 and 2008 [pcs/year]