Service Quality and Reliability Plan Results for 2024
SQRP 2024 – By Louis Porter
Washington Electric Cooperative reports annually to state regulators on how well it provided service to its members over the last year. The Service Quality and Reliability Plan or SQRP report consists of 12 categories designed to take a snapshot of where we are doing well and where we need to improve.
While this report is filed with the Vermont Public Utility Commission, it is also a useful tool for those at WEC and for those it serves to track performance and highlight trends.
WEC was over its allowed metric in the percentage of calls not answered within 20 seconds last year. This is a category that the Co-op has struggled with frequently and we have tried various approaches to improve both through our own staffing and by working with the call center that answers members’ calls when our own Member Service Representatives are busy.
This year, we tried allowing calls to go first to an automated answering system, in the hopes that this would speed up the average call time. However, members found this confusing and frustrating, so we reverted to the system in which calls are first picked up by a human, either at WEC or at our call center, unless they are all busy or a member requests the automated system.
We also failed to meet our outage statistics in 2024. The Co-op experienced 906 separate outage events, not counting major storms. That is more than our three-year average of 845, and more than our 10-year average of 776.
Perhaps counterintuitively, because major storms are not counted against our performance, years in which we have a lot of storms which don’t quite reach the major storm designation can push our outage statistics out of the acceptable range, even if overall outage hours for members are less severe than in years with more major storms. Major storms are those with extensive damage to WEC’s system, more than 10% of members lose power, and at least 1% of members are out of service for at least 24 hours. Ironically, bringing in outside crews helps restore power more quickly, but that can also move weather events out of the “major storm” category, worsening our statistics even as it benefits members waiting to get their electricity back.
WEC faced three major storms in 2024, and another seven severe weather events that caused significant damage and outages, but did not quite count as major storms.
Here are the details for the other service quality statistics.
- Work Safety Performance. The safety of WEC workers and of the general public is of great importance and is a top priority for WEC. The jobs of any electrical utility workers can be difficult, strenuous, and pose significant risks. WEC had two injuries which caused lost work time, and so met its standard of less than six, but it did exceed its metric for total amount of time lost to injuries in 2024 with 96 cumulative days.
- Outage Incidents. The “System Average Interruption Frequency Index” or SAIFI measures the average number of outage incidents that occurred per member, exclusive of major storms. Our goal is no more than 3.8 outages per member, and we averaged 4.0 in 2024. This was worse than in 2023, when we met our goal with 2.9.
- Outage Duration. The “Customer Average Interruption Duration Index” or CAIDI measures the average time it takes to restore power when there was an outage, exclusive of major storms. Our goal is to restore power in 2.7 hours, and in 2024 we missed that objective and restored power in 3.5 hours on average. That was slightly worse than in 2023 when we restored power in 3.2 hours on average. Part of the challenge for WEC in meeting this metric is the size of our territory. Travel time for crews to reach the outlying towns can delay our response significantly.
- Calls not answered within 20 seconds. One of our requirements from regulators is that we answer calls to WEC within 20 seconds in all but 15% of cases. In 2024, we did not meet that measurement, with 17.4% of calls lingering too long. That was a slight improvement over 2023 where we had 18% over the time limit.
- Bills not rendered in seven days. Our goal is to have no more than 0.1% of bills (one in 1,000) issued more than seven days after they were supposed to go out. No bills were issued late in 2024, or in 2023, to WEC’s members.
- Bills found inaccurate. No more than 0.10% of all bills (one in 1,000) sent out can be inaccurate. We met that goal with 0.08% of bills inaccurate.
- Payment posting complaints. Our target is no more than 0.05% of members (one in 2,000) having complaints about payments not being posted promptly and accurately to their accounts. We had 0.01% complaining in 2024.
- Meter readings a month. Although there are situations in which a meter cannot be read and WEC has to issue an estimated bill, the goal is to have that occur to no more than 5% of bills, or five in 100. In 2024 there were 0.36% of bills based on estimated meter readings.
- Requested work not done on time. When we extend lines to new homes or do work requested by members, we try hard to do that work efficiently and on time. Although this can be a challenge for a small organization, particularly when WEC has seen a large number of new service requests in recent years, we have a target of no more than 5% of jobs not being completed on time. In 2024, as in past years, all jobs were completed on time.
- Average delay days after missed delivery date. This measure is not applicable, given that all jobs were completed on time as noted above.
- Customer satisfaction. WEC conducts a professional survey of members every five years to gauge customer satisfaction. The most recent survey was completed in 2020, and WEC received high marks in most categories. Overall, member satisfaction was good, with a mean rating of 8.34 (out of 10), with 57% of respondents giving a 9 or 10. We will conduct the next survey this year.
- Complaints to DPS / Consumer Affairs. Vermonters who get their electricity from any of the state’s utilities can report those problems to the Consumer Affairs and Public Information Division of the Department of Public Service. The Department then contacts the utility to get more information. In most cases, those issues are resolved through discussion or the DPS determines there was no basis for the complaint. However, if the DPS determines that a utility has not done something right and requires that it be corrected this is recorded as an “escalation”. WEC’s SQRP requires that the number of escalations not exceed 0.07% of our membership (or about 7 per year). In 2024, as in 2023, no escalations were reported.