With customers at the centre of everything we do, our customer commitments show the standards we hold ourselves to and how we ensure, and measure, your satisfaction with the mahi we do.


Our customer commitments represent the standards we set for ourselves in terms of engagement, service quality, and sustainability.  These commitments are actionable benchmarks that guide our daily operations.

Showing our accountability reinforces our commitment to continuous improvement, ensuring that we're always striving to meet and exceed your expectations.

Our commitments

We engage with customers​ and communities to understand their needs
We are easy to deal with and quick to respond
Our network services and solutions provide value to customers
Our assets and works have minimal impact on customers and communities
Our network is future ready and sustainably operated

Supporting documents

Our commitments

  • customer commitment people icon
    Step 1

    We engage with customers and communities to understand their needs

    What this means for us

    Customers are our priority, and we’re committed to understanding their needs and expectations. We build strong relationships with our customers through consistent, transparent, and two-way communication. This includes collaborating with communities, businesses and stakeholders to engage them in our planning process and clearly communicating decisions and projects that impact them. By prioritising customer needs, managing expectations transparently, and continuously improving our ways of working, we are designing a network that meets our customer’s needs and expectations in both the short and long term.  

    What this means for you

    • Customer-centric planning: We prioritise listening to customer needs and managing their expectations in all planning efforts, from fault restoration and maintenance to major upgrade projects. By actively seeking customer input and feedback, we ensure our network plans align with customer priorities. Our goal is to deliver solutions that meet customer needs both in the short term and long term. 

    • Streamlined connection process: We manage requests for new connections, network upgrades, and other jobs efficiently through a customer-centric and transparent service model. For smaller customers, we offer standardised and streamlined services. For larger, more complex connection needs, we provide tailored solutions. Each customer project is important to us, and we work closely with our customers to ensure a smooth connection journey and the best supply solution.  

    • Community engagement: We are dedicated to engaging with the communities we serve to understand their needs and inform our network decisions. By seeking feedback from community members, including strategic partners such as councils and local stakeholders, we ensure our plans reflect broader community priorities. This collaborative approach helps us design solutions that not only meet technical or practical requirements but also support the community’s long-term growth and development.
       
    • Community partnerships: We’re proud to be part of the communities we serve. That’s why we support events and organisations across the regions where we operate. We sponsor projects and initiatives across our network that are meaningful to our customers and their communities and that make a positive difference to their lives. 
  • Customer commitment easy to deal with icon
    Step 2

    We are easy to deal with and quick to respond

    What this means for us

    We are committed to provide timely and effective support. By investing in our people and technology, we aim to deliver a seamless, transparent, and responsive customer service experience. We achieve this by leveraging multiple communication channels, enhancing digital tools, fostering organisational efficiency, and maintaining a strong focus on customer feedback and satisfaction. Our customer service aims to make our customers feel supported and valued.  

    What this means for you

    • Effective communications: We use multiple channels to engage with our customers, such as our website, email, social media, phone calls and online forms, where key account managers and customer consultants provide genuine personal engagement. By tracking our interactions with customers, we can streamline and improve our communications effectiveness and our customer service consistency.  

    • Accurate and timely updates: Providing accurate and timely updates is crucial for maintaining trust with our customers. We ensure that all information regarding outages, projects, and other work is communicated promptly through the relevant channels. By delivering clear and precise updates, we help our customers stay informed and be prepared.
       
    • Transparent processes: We strive to make every interaction clear and straightforward, providing our customers the information and support they need. In our connection, complaint, outage and general enquiries processes, we always aim to ensure full transparency and clear communication about what customers can expect from us and what we need from them. 

    • Customer resolutions: Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong, and while formal channels and processes for complaint management and disputes are in place, we recognise that these may not always be enough. At these times, we pledge to work with customers on a fair and timely resolution.  
  • Step 3

    Our network services and solutions provide value to customers

    What this means for us

    Providing value to our customers is important to us. We do this by ensuring our network services are reliable and tailored to meet their needs. By focusing on smart design and operational excellence, we minimise outages and maintain a steady supply of energy. Through efficient and transparent investment decisions, we offer better value for money in our network solutions and services. Clear connection charges, distribution prices, and optional pricing flexibility empower customers to make informed decisions. 


    What this means for you

    • Power supply reliability: We prioritise building a resilient network capable of managing disruptions and maintaining a continuous power supply as much as possible. By investing in robust asset management and maintenance strategies, we enhance network performance and reliability for our customers. 

    • Cost efficiencies: We are committed to making energy more affordable for our customers. By optimising our operations and continuously seeking innovative solutions to enhance our network’s efficiency, we ultimately ensure the best value for our customers.  

    • Innovative energy solutions: Through innovation we provide competitive energy solutions and services and can offer non-network alternatives and options to customers, allowing them to make informed decisions based on their needs. 

    • Transparent pricing:  We provide clear and understandable pricing structures, giving our customers insight into upfront capital cost contributions (where relevant) and their ongoing connection charges. By offering detailed and straightforward connection and service cost information, we empower customers to manage their energy costs effectively. 

    • Accountability: We are monitored by regulators to ensure we provide a reliable service to our customers at a fair price. This is known as price-quality regulation. We report on a range of financial and non-financial metrics to meet regulatory requirements and are driven to optimise our operational and investment budgets, so that we deliver sustainable customer satisfaction and value. 
  • Step 4

    We minimise the impact of our assets and works on customers and communities

    What this means for us

    We will minimise the impact of our network and operations on customers and communities by designing and maintaining a reliable energy supply. In the case of unplanned outages or planned maintenance, we aim to minimise the disruption by prioritising clear and timely communication. We will keep the loss of power to a minimum through effective outage planning, utilising innovative monitoring technology and, where essential, we can offer support such as generation. On the ground, we aim to minimise any visual, noise, and environmental impacts on our communities. 

    What this means for you

    • Reliable power supply: We focus on a resilient energy network to ensure continuous power as much as possible. Robust asset management and innovation enhance reliability and reduce future maintenance needs. 

    • Minimised and shorter down-times: Through real-time monitoring, automation, and advanced vegetation management, we enhance network efficiency, improve fault detection, and support faster restorations. We anticipate disruptions, respond quickly, and implement effective recovery plans to minimise the frequency and duration of outages. 

    • Transparent outage communications: We notify all customers in advance about scheduled outages through emails, text messages, or flyer distribution. During both planned and unplanned outages, we ensure customers receive clear and timely updates through relevant channels, including our digital outage map, which provides real-time information and updates on status and expected resolution times. 

    • Generation: During outages, we can provide temporary power generation for schools and communities, ensuring essential services continue with minimal disruption. 

    • Low impact network: We minimise visual and environmental impact through thoughtful asset placement, including feasible underground installations and aesthetic solutions. We adopt sustainable practices like replanting trees, minimising toxic chemicals, and ensuring responsible disposal of equipment.
  • Step 5

    Our network is future ready and sustainably operated

    What this means for us

    We’re committed to New Zealand’s transition to net zero emissions by 2050. We’re reducing our emissions by improving our ways of working and using energy efficient and sustainable practices. Through new technologies, we’re preparing our network to meet future energy demands and support our customers’ decarbonisation needs. Our network will enable a sustainable and resilient energy future with tailored services, empowering customers to actively participate in the low-carbon transition through personalised energy choices. 


    What this means for you

    • Energy efficiency and transition: By implementing advanced technologies and promoting energy-saving practices, we help customers manage their energy use and carbon footprint. We support the transition to low -carbon alternatives, providing customers with the tools and resources needed to decarbonise and participate in the energy transition.  

    • Future ready network: We plan and prepare for an increase in electricity demand due to decarbonisation and growth. We invest in new technologies and infrastructure that can adapt to future energy needs, ensuring our network remains robust and flexible. This adaptability guarantees an efficient, reliable, and sustainable energy network, meeting both current and future needs. 

    • Flexibility services: As “energy facilitators,” we work closely with customers and stakeholders to incorporate new services. These flexibility services enable active customer participation in the energy ecosystem, support renewable distributed energy resources (DER), balance supply and demand in real-time, and provide greater control over energy profiles.  

    • Sustainable practices: We comply with stringent climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience standards. This requires us to demonstrate our proactive management of our assets to minimise environmental impact and ensure resilience to climate change throughout their lifecycle—from planning and construction to operations and decommissioning. 

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