Ombudsman’s message
by Clare Petre, Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW

Celebrating 10 years of service

This year marks EWON’s 10th anniversary and I celebrate ten years as Ombudsman.

This milestone is a time to reflect on EWON’s role and what difference we have made for utility consumers and the industry.

EWON has provided independent dispute resolution for thousands of customers.We have worked with electricity, gas and water providers to raise customer service standards and reduce complaints.

Most significantly, EWON has focussed attention on the social aspects of essential services and the fact that we cannot have people living without light, heat or water because of affordability issues.

Over the past decade we have seen substantial changes in utility services. There are now well established programs to assist customers in financial difficulty and more flexible payment options for customers.

Utility providers now offer a range of innovative programs including energy and water audits and retrofits. They also provide support for the No Interest Loans Scheme (NILS) to enable low income consumers to buy energy and water efficient whitegoods.

We have been pleased to see a decrease in disconnections of electricity supply for customers in financial hardship. Any disconnection for affordability reasons is one too many, but providers are working hard to reduce the number of disconnections.

The other significant change EWON has seen is a greater connection between stakeholders: government, utilities, regulators, and community agencies. What was a sense of separateness when EWON first began, has developed into a sense of partnership and communication. Stakeholders are working together to ensure people stay connected to essential services.

EWON has actively encouraged all these changes through our forums, outreach work, information exchanges, submissions, and reports, and by using complaints information to highlight consumers’ issues with electricity, gas and water services.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our stakeholders for their support for EWON over the years – the industry members of the scheme, our Board and Council, government and regulatory agencies, and of course the skilled and dedicated EWON staff.

In particular, I thank the many frontline community workers who have helped energy and water consumers with referrals, counselling and emergency assistance. Without your assistance in raising awareness of our service and developing our resources, our journey so far would have been much longer and harder.