Performance against our objectives
Our progress against all National Grid’s objectives is set out here. We include below further information specific to Gas Distribution with respect to the objectives that are closely aligned to the lines of business.
Driving improvements in our safety, customer and operational performance
Safety
Our objective is to reduce employee lost time injuries to zero.
To monitor our safety performance we use employee lost time injury frequency rate as our key performance indicator. In addition, we monitor kilometres of gas distribution mains replaced in the UK.
Lost time injuries totalled 76 in 2008/09, of which 24 were within the UK and 52 were within US. This was equivalent to a lost time injury frequency rate of 0.35. This compared with a total of 72 lost time injuries in 2007/08, of which 15 were within the UK and 57 within the US, equivalent to a lost time injury frequency rate of 0.36. Data for 2007/08 has been restated as if the KeySpan acquisition had occurred at the beginning of the year.
In both the UK and US, we again exceeded all our regulatory agreed targets on safety related standards.
In the UK, we have decommissioned more than 1,900 kilometres of metallic gas main in 2008/09 under our long-term main replacement programme, exceeding the target agreed with the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the third consecutive year. The HSE target this year was 1,852 kilometres. We decommissioned over 1,850 kilometres in both 2007/08 and 2006/07. We have also seen good performance in the US with the rate of mains replacement steadily increasing. As detailed under details of material litigation as at 31 March 2009, we identified that some of our mains replacement activity may have been misreported. We have notified both Ofgem and the HSE, and a full investigation is currently being conducted.
In the UK, we are also investing around £25 million in a wider roll-out of active control systems, which change the pressure in the gas mains automatically as customer demand conditions require. This investment reduces average system pressure on our gas mains, thereby reducing natural gas escapes and is a direct consequence of the new environmental emissions incentive laid out by Ofgem in this current price control period. The combined effect of the above mains replacement activity and pressure management investments ultimately reduces the number of gas escapes that impact climate change.
Customer service
In addition to meeting customer service objectives agreed with our regulators, our objective is to be within the upper quartile of customer satisfaction in the territories we operate in.
To monitor our customer service performance we use customer satisfaction surveys as our performance measure.
In addition to meeting all service standards defined by our UK regulators, we aim to deliver a high quality customer experience, with satisfaction levels measurable through industry surveys in the geographic areas within which we operate.
In the UK, quality of service standards apply to three principal areas of activity: new connections; the telephone service; and attendance at gas emergencies. All standards have been met in 2008/09 and, in the individual cases where compensation is due, we have processes to ensure that customers receive the statutory compensation to which they are entitled. Customer satisfaction with the levels of service provided in respect of our main types of work (emergency response and repair, planned work and connections work) is measured and reported on a quarterly basis. Results of these surveys are directly comparable with the other independent distribution network operators and can be found at www.nationalgrid.com/uk/gas and www.ofgem.gov.uk. In summary, out of a maximum score of 10, we achieved the following year-to-date network average scores: 7.86 for emergency response and repair; 7.29 for planned work; and 6.74 for connections work. All scores are calculated within the Ofgem template and represent the mean scores of individual quarters. There is a programme of activities within the UK to improve these scores in future surveys.
For gas utility businesses in the US, J.D. Power and Associates formulate an annual survey and customer satisfaction rating. In 2008/09, the gas line of business experienced a decline. The business customer satisfaction scores were in the third quartile and residential customer satisfaction scores are in line to be in the third quartile. As our relationship with J.D. Power develops, we plan to implement initiatives that should improve customer satisfaction in the next three years by focusing on: communications and price; corporate citizenship; bill payment and collections; gas and electricity quality; reliability and safety; customer field services; and customer operations.
In the US, our Gas Distribution business met all gas safety related regulatory requirements on service quality indices and performance measures. These standards are set by state regulatory agencies and cover operational activities including, but not limited to, damage prevention, leak repair, emergency response, meter changes and main and service replacements.