About EWON

• What we do
• List of members
• General information
  • Who used our services
  • How customers heard about us
  • Referrals we provided to customers
• Board and Council representatives
  • Message from Terri Benson, Chairperson EWON Board
  • Message from Professor Stuart Rees, Chairperson EWON Council
• How we measure our success

What we do

Established in 1998, EWON is the approved dispute resolution scheme for NSW electricity and gas customers, and some water customers. Our aim is to provide high quality, independent dispute resolution for energy and water customers and to contribute to the raising of overall standards of customer service in the energy and water industries.

Consumers can approach EWON about a range of issues related to:

• provision or failure to provide energy or water services
• disconnection or restriction of supply
• billing and credit
• quality of supply
• actions by a provider that impact on land or other property
• transfers between energy providers
• electricity and gas marketing

We work with energy and water providers in a number of ways, including:

• reviewing disputes that have not been resolved by internal systems
• encouraging continuous improvement and consistency in customer service
• providing reports and analysis to help raise industry standards
• creating opportunities to improve relationships with customers

General information

Who used our services

The data on who used our services this year is consistent with previous years.

• 52% of customers were female; 48% male
• 93% of customers contacted us by phone
• 92% of complaints were from residential customers
• 6% of complaints were from business customers
• 37% of complaints were from regional and rural customers

We do not routinely collect the following information, but it is recorded if offered by consumers. So while the numbers are low and almost certainly underestimated, they are still significant:

• At least 29% of customers received pension/benefits
• At least 6% of customers lived in public housing
• 2% of customers identified as Indigenous
• 3% of customers identified as CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse)

Board and council representatives

EWON Board

The Board is responsible for corporate governance and funding and is made up of representatives of the electricity, gas and water providers. Members of the Board up to 30 June 2006 were:

• Terri Benson (Country Energy), Chairperson
• Sandro Canale (AGL) (to May 2006)
• Jim Galvin (AGL) (from May 2006)
• Rod Howard (Integral Energy)
• Geoff Lilliss (EnergyAustralia)
• Kevin Murray (TransGrid)
• Colin Ridley (Sydney Water)

EWON Council

The Council is chaired by an independent chairperson and comprises equal representation of consumer and industry interests to ensure EWON’s independence. Members of the Council up to 30 June 2006 were:

• Professor Stuart Rees, Chairperson
• Don Anderson, EnergyAustralia
• Ken Evans, Financial Counsellors’ Association NSW (FCAN)
• Kam Khelawan, AGL (from December 2005)
• Dev Mukherjee, Council of Social Service NSW (NCOSS)
• Craig Murray, Country Energy
• Robert Petersen, AGL (to December 2005)
• Bruce Rowley, Integral Energy
• Helen Vorlicek, Hunter Water
• Jim Wellsmore, Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)
• Graeme Wiffen, Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA)
• Denise Wilson, Id Planning (small business representative)

How we measure our success

EWON plans its activities and measures its success against six industry-standard benchmarks.

1. Accessibility: EWON consistently works to ensure consumers have access to our services. We actively promote EWON through publications, outreach activities, directories and targeted media campaigns. We monitor and evaluate the response to this work and the results show that our promotions continue to attract consumers who most need our help.
2. Independence: EWON is not an advocate for the consumer or a representative of the providers. We assess each complaint individually and focus on reaching a fair and reasonable outcome based on the circumstances of each complaint. Where negotiations with an energy or water provider are unsuccessful, the Ombudsman has the authority to make a binding decision to resolve a complaint.
3. Fairness: EWON applies the principles of procedural fairness when making decisions. We provide opportunities for all parties to have input into our investigations and we explain the reasons for our decisions in writing. If customers are not satisfied with the outcome of our investigation, we offer to review our decision if they can establish grounds for their request. This year we received six formal requests for internal review from a total of 3,136 finalised investigations.
4. Accountability: EWON publicly accounts for our operations in various publications which are distributed to a range of industry, government and community stakeholders. We produce regular reports for our Council and Board as well as providers, regulators and government stakeholders. These reports highlight current problems, complaint trends and systemic issues.
5. Efficiency: We ensure complaints are dealt with appropriately by regularly reviewing our performance in areas such as the time taken to answer calls and the success of our referral arrangements with providers. We monitor case turnover and duration so that we continue to resolve cases in a timely and cost-effective manner.
6. Effectiveness: We commission independent reviews of our performance on a periodic basis. We are committed to continuous improvement, and so we conduct customer surveys, service development projects, and ongoing staff training.