CASE STUDY 4
Community Resilience
Supporting vulnerable communities
Case study: Community Resilience
- Project reference: NIA_NGN_357
- Project partner: National Energy Action
- Project status: Complete
- Overall project value: £88,657.00
- Innovation theme: Supporting consumers in vulnerable situations
INNOVATION THEME:
Supporting vulnerable communities
As we prepare for a challenging energy systems transition in the lead up to 2050, it’s important that we create a comprehensive and consistent approach to building community resilience and safeguarding vulnerable customer groups.
To help us do this, we partnered with National Energy Action (NEA) to undertake a cross-utility review that considered the range of support currently being provided, which organisations provide this support, and what good practice means for community resilience and consumer safeguarding, both now and during the future energy transition.
We conducted a large-scale piece of research, which included interviews, roundtables and workshops with a wide range of vulnerable customers and stakeholders, to identify the short and long-term risks to community and customer resilience, and to determine how we best manage and mitigate these risks.
Using the results of the research, we created a set of six guiding principles, which set out how to best serve vulnerable customers. Each guiding principle comes with its own set of best practice guidelines, which can be used by utility companies and service providers across the UK, enabling them to empower vulnerable customers and build community resilience.
Steve Dacre Innovation Vulnerability Lead at NGN
“There’s a real climate of vulnerability at the moment, which has been made worse by the cost-of-living crisis. This piece of research and the resulting guidelines will enable us and other businesses to adopt a best-in-class approach when working with vulnerable customers, ensuring we provide the support they need.
“We’re now implementing these guidelines into our day-to-day operations, and working alongside NEA to engage with other businesses to encourage them to adopt them too.”
Dr Jamie-Leigh Rosenburgh Insights and Impact Manager at NEA
“Understanding the multiple, complex and intersectional ways in which customers can experience vulnerability is essential if we are to ensure that the transition to net zero is fair, just and inclusive for all. This research, and the guidelines it has developed, will be a key tool in enabling utility networks and their partners to consistently and meaningfully embed a vulnerability-first perspective into their strategic planning and practical delivery – both now and in the future.”
Key benefits:
- A robust set of guidelines outlining how to best serve vulnerable customers, which can be used by organisations across multiple sectors
- Direct engagement with vulnerable customers has enabled us to understand the complex range of difficulties they face and determine the ways we can best support and empower them
- Embedding the guiding principles into our day-to-day operations will improve our service offering and enable us to support vulnerable customers more effectively
