Endeavour Energy Annual Performance Report - Parliament of New ...

03
OUR
OPERATIONS
RETAIL – TRAnsITIonING TO A NETWORK-onlY BUSIness
Retail
Integral Energy, as our organisation
was previously known, managed
an integrated retail and network
business for 53 years. During this
time, Integral Energy’s retail division
managed sales and marketing for
over 850,000 homes and businesses
across rural and metropolitan
New South Wales and South East
Queensland. Our customer base
also included some large corporate
clients in Victoria and the Australian
Capital Territory.
On 14 December 2010, the NSW
Government announced it had
entered into a contract for the
sale of the retail business assets of
Integral Energy to Origin Energy.
This sale included the ownership of
the Integral Energy customers, brand
and wholesale agreements.
The completion of the sale on
1 March 2011 represented the start
of a transition to a state-owned
electricity network business under
the new brand of Endeavour
Energy, and the implementation of
a Transition Services Agreement
with Origin Energy.
Transition services
agreement
As part of the sale process,
Endeavour Energy entered into a
Transition Services Agreement (TSA)
to provide retail services to Origin
Energy. The agreement covered
both short-term services (such as
sales and marketing and forecasting)
and longer-term functions (such
as billing and call centre). Each
function is defined in a service
schedule, which includes agreed key
performance indicator targets.
While the sale of the Integral Energy
retail business assets and brand
is a catalyst for shaping future
network-only business structures
within the NSW distribution sector,
there remain a number of important
transition arrangements related
to the sale that Endeavour Energy
must manage well over the current
planning cycle.
These include people issues,
effective management of the TSA
with Origin Energy, the IT transition
and rebranding efforts. The effective
management of these issues, in
parallel with the proposed integration
of the state’s distribution businesses,
is critical to the successful transfer
of the retail operation – and to
the establishment of a sustainable
network-only business model.
For these reasons, managing risk in
transitioning the retail business to
Origin Energy has been identified
as a breakthrough priority action in
2011–12. (See business risk section
on page 16.)
Essential customer service
Endeavour Energy operates two
customer interaction centres (CIC) at
Huntingwood and Coniston. These
centres manage retail and network
related customer calls.
In September 2010, retail service
hours were changed to align
with customer demand, with
operating hours from 8.00am to
8.00pm weekdays and Saturday
mornings. From 1 March 2011, the
CIC continued to manage retail
customer calls on behalf of Origin
Energy as part of our Transition
Services Agreement.
This year our call centres received
a total of 1,333,027 calls, of which
413,225 retail calls were received on
behalf of Origin Energy.
The number of retail complaints we
received increased this year from
8,568 in 2009–10 to 9,964 for 2010–11.
The top issues for customers related
to concerns about high bills and
doorknocking activities in New
South Wales and Queensland.
In response to customers’ concerns
about consumption, our Customer
Care group conducted 1,324 homeenergy
audits and 138 phone-energy
audits to help them reduce their
energy use.
OUR NEW BRAND
The Endeavour Energy brand, launched on 1 March 2011 as the new
name for the poles and wires business of the former Integral Energy,
reflects the serious and sincere effort we make every day to deliver
power to some of Australia’s largest regional economies.
At the same time, ownership of Integral Energy’s brand transferred
to Origin as part of the sale.
Since the launch of the new network brand we have focused on the
staged rebranding of signage, fleet vehicles, stationery, uniforms,
and publications across all parts of the organisation. The bulk of the
rebranding process is due to be completed by the end of December 2011.
Ty Christopher, General Manager
Network Development unveils our new
brand in Wollongong.
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