We introduced the Incentive on Connections Engagement (ICE) to encourage DNOs to provide a good level of service and engagement to customers who are seeking a connection.
By providing a good level of service and engagement, DNOs are enabling new connections to the electricity network. The help enables new homes, businesses and new forms of electricity generation. In order to meet the minimum criteria outlined in the ICE guidance document, DNOs must show they have responded to their customers and if they fail to do so, a penalty may be applied.
The penalty consultation we have published is to get further stakeholder views to particular questions which have arisen from responses to the June consultation and the reports submitted by the DNOs.
In May the DNOs submitted evidence for how they had performed in 2016-17 and we issued a consultation in July to seek stakeholders’ views. Broadly we consider that there is evidence that DNOs are working to understand and meet the needs of their connections customers. However, having assessed the submissions and stakeholder responses, we have identified potential issues with some aspects of the performance of all the DNOs which we want further information on.
At this stage, we consider that there may be a case for applying penalties against all the DNOs. If we were to go ahead with penalties on the areas of concern identified at this stage, the total penalty across all DNOs would be £13.9m. Alongside the consultation document, we have published all the non-confidential stakeholder responses to our July consultation and expect the DNOs to take this feedback into consideration for their activities in 2017-18.
In this letter, we are seeking your views on the performance of the DNOs on specific issues. We have provided an annex of targeted questions for each DNO on which we would like your views on. Responses to this consultation will help inform our view on whether the DNOs have met the minimum criteria in certain market segments, and if not, whether we should apply penalties.
The deadline for responses is 18 September 2017. Responses should be sent to connections@ofgem.gov.uk. When responding, please ensure that you address the specific questions raised in relation to our concerns with the DNOs submission.