NMa Gives Consumers Insight into the Performance of Energy Companies

As a continuation of its investigations into the administrations of the large energy companies, the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) publishes a scorecard on its website every quarter. This scorecard gives consumers structural insight into the performance of individual energy companies. By means of the scorecard, the regulator shows what the situation in relation to the company is with regard to the timeliness with which invoices are sent following a change of address or a switch. The timeliness with which the annual invoices are sent is also stated.

On the basis of its investigation earlier this month into the administration of the six large energy suppliers (Essent, Eneco, Nuon, Delta, Greenchoice and Oxxio), NMa concluded that the suppliers had managed to eliminate their administrative backlogs for the period prior to January 2005 with regard to the processing of changes of address and switches. This is in line with agreements which the suppliers reached with the Minister of Economic Affairs at the beginning of this year. Peter Plug, the Acting Director of the Office of Energy Regulation (DTe), part of NMa: "Of course, it is important that the energy companies are able to sustain this result and that consumers at all times know what to expect. By means of the scorecards on our website, we make the performance of the energy companies with regard to their administration transparent and enable consumers to take this performance into account when choosing their energy supplier."

The scorecard published today contains the percentage of invoices dispatched on time (within two months) to customers who indicated in June that they wished to switch or change address. The scorecard, as well as the investigation earlier this month, shows that the energy companies have improved their administrative processes. If, contrary to expectations, the performance of the energy companies deterioratesDTe will request a thorough plan of action and will monitor its implementation closely.

The scorecard was developed in cooperation with EnergieNed and includes all the electricity and gas suppliers with more than 10,000 customers. The performance of the grid managers has not yet been included in the scorecard. It has since been agreed with the grid managers that they will take the necessary steps of their own accord to ensure that their performance can be compared. DTe will then include the performance of the grid managers on the scorecard in December of this year. As of today, the scorecard can be found on DTe's website.

In addition to timeliness, DTe also considers other aspects of quality in relation to the services provided by energy companies. For instance, in the course of next year the regulator will publish the results of its investigation into the way in which energy companies process complaints.