Customer Engagement Group

Customer Engagement Group (CEG)

External customer challenge groups have proven to be incredibly valuable in presenting a different lens and viewpoint into the organisation and we wish to leverage this still further during this price control and as we begin to plan for RIIO-3.

We have decided to establish a brand new customer challenge group later this year, replacing the CEG. We aim to build on the fantastic success of the CEG and demonstrate that we are moving our approach forward and are a business where independent challenge and customer and stakeholder insight is fundamental in our decision making.

“It’s easy for companies to make promises that they will put customers and the public interest at the heart of their decision making, but our role as a Customer Engagement Group will be to ensure it genuinely happens.

“The company has expressed an ambition to be one of the best network companies and we intend to hold them to that. This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference to around 11 million gas consumers and their communities in four network regions.”

Zoe McLeod, Customer Engagement Group Chair

Aims and objectives

In June 2018 we set up our customer engagement group with Zoe McLeod as chair. The CEG brought together 13 independent people from a variety of backgrounds to provide independent examination and challenge to Cadent.

The CEG provided independent examination and challenge to Cadent. It gave views to the energy regulator, Ofgem, on whether the company’s business plan for the next regulatory period, known as RIIO2, addresses the needs and preferences of its stakeholders.

Our existing and future stakeholders include individual customers, citizens, consumers, organisations and communities that are impacted by the activities of Cadent.

These views were detailed in a report that was submitted to Ofgem by the CEG, alongside our business plan.

About customer engagement groups - CEGs

CEGs were initiated by Ofgem through the RIIO2 framework and subsequently the need for CEGs within the distribution operators.

An integral part to the framework was to encourage greater dialogue and interaction between the operators and their customers. Therefore, each distribution operator like Cadent established their own CEG and an over-arching panel, tasked with providing industry oversight and interaction with Ofgem.