End User Customer Workshops

As part of our desire for strong engagement with our customers, we delivered three phases of iterative workshops - July 2021, October 2021 and February 2022 - with Victorian residential and small business customers from across our network area.

The purpose of these workshops was to gather information and feedback from our customer base on a wide range of topics and give our customers the opportunity to influence and help shape our future initiatives and investments. These plans include the products and services we will offer, how much is spent on them, and what customers will pay for the distribution component of their gas bill. We wanted to be challenged to improve them.

The workshops involved the same group of customers across all three rounds. Over time, it allowed us to discuss topics in more depth as customers’ understanding of our gas network and services developed. It also enabled us to demonstrate that we are listening and show the members how their input continues to shape our plans.

Each round of workshops consisted of five sessions. The rounds were held with the same groups of representatives from Craigieburn, Warrnambool, Bendigo, and two from Geelong (one of which was a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) group). Workshops had approximately 20 customers in each with a mix of residential and small business participants, representing a wide range of social and demographic areas.

The consultation and engagement activities were delivered in accordance with our engagement principles. That is, they were genuine and committed, integrated and clear, with accurate and timely communication. They were also accessible and inclusive, measurable and transparent.

We worked with each group to find out what they value about their gas supply and what areas they feel we should focus on in the future, part of which meant developing an understanding of how their energy use may change over time. We then set out to learn about their needs and preferences so we could focus our time and resources on delivering services that matter and ensuring what we offer remains relevant. We also asked customers for ideas on new and innovative ways we could improve the gas network and the services we offer. As the topics discussed in these workshops were customer led, the feedback from these first sessions informed the discussions during the second and third round of workshops.

In the second and third round of the workshops we delved deeper into the topics raised during the first round of workshops, which included affordability, safety and reliability, customer service, decarbonisation and the future of gas, innovation and empowering customers through education programs. It also included discussions on the price impacts of the various options proposed in our plans. And, in the third round of workshops, we shared an overview of how we’d incorporated customer feedback into our draft plans and went into more detail on the accelerated depreciation options and the Priority Services Program.

You can view the detailed report on the customer workshop series completed by our independent facilitator, Communication Link, here [insert link/attach document stored in Teams]. Additional materials from our customer workshops can be found on the Gas Matters portal.