Operational Reporting - Essential Energy

CHAIRMAN’S AND MANAGING DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Country Energy’s overall strategy
remains simple – be Australia’s best
essential services provider.
We recognise the ongoing position of responsibility we
hold, and continue to strive to exceed the expectations
of our customers and shareholders.
We are pleased to report on another year of substantial
achievement in our priority areas for the year – financial
performance, customer satisfaction, organisational health
and operational excellence – priorities reflected in the
structure of this Annual Report.
We recorded an earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) result
of $259.2 million, a satisfactory return given the high cost
energy market conditions, greatly assisted by substantial
operating cost savings achieved throughout the year.
Early indications for 2008–09 show some easing in wholesale
energy costs, and hence a better outlook for the year ahead.
In the past year we again delivered the level of service our
customers have come to expect, especially on customer
call response times and the time taken to resolve customer
issues – more than 90 per cent of customer complaints
were resolved within four days or less.
Customer satisfaction surveys carried out during the year
also reflected the outstanding efforts of our employees to
position Country Energy as a world-class customer service
organisation.
A robust and reliable power network is essential to the
1,500 plus communities we serve. We have continued to
invest in our electricity distribution network – Australia’s
largest – through a record $630.5 million network capital
investment and maintenance program. Significant new
infrastructure was installed across all of our nine regions,
complemented by a substantial maintenance program to
improve supply reliability.
Our continuing investment in the power network was
rewarded over the 2007–08 year, also greatly assisted by
relatively mild storm conditions – we recorded our best
reliability result on record with the average minutes lost per
customer at 225 and well within our target.
Country Energy’s number one priority remains safety, and
one of the business’ proudest achievements has been a
transformation in workplace safety performance over the
past four years. We recorded another significant reduction in
our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), with a result of
2.5 as at June 2008, down from 5.8 at the same time last
year, and now amongst the best performers in our industry.
While our aim is for zero incidents, this achievement
underscores the efforts of all employees to find better and
safer ways to perform their roles.
We again undertook a major intake of apprentices, with 48
recruits from across New South Wales joining us in January
2008, as part of a total of 117 apprenticeship positions –
including 24 Indigenous apprenticeships – created during
the year.
With governments at all levels introducing measures to
address carbon pollution and emissions, it is vital that
Country Energy is agile in adapting to change, and in
assisting customers to adapt to new challenges.
We again responded to strong customer interest in
renewables, with 60 per cent growth in the number of
our customers purchasing countrygreen®– our suite of
accredited GreenPower products. And we looked inwards,
commencing the first phase of a carbon reduction program
by measuring our entire environmental footprint, to ensure
a verifiable fact base from which to extend our waste, water
and carbon reduction plans.
Finally, we are about to embark on a fundamental change in
the way we operate our electricity network, and the capabilities
it can provide. During the year we announced our plans for
an ‘Intelligent Network’ initiative – applying digital technology
to the power grid to improve reliability, support the growth of
renewables like solar and wind, and make energy efficiency
simpler for customers through the use of advanced metering.
This potentially far-reaching initiative is being developed in
collaboration with IBM and a global coalition of energy
utilities. The first major element of the initiative, a dedicated
Intelligent Network Research and Education Centre at
Queanbeyan, will be completed in 2008, and will demonstrate
how network based technologies can benefit customers and
the environment.
Home
2 Finding better ways