Auriga Services, a subsidiary of Severn Trent Trust Fund, has revealed it expects to launch a nationwide portal to share information about vulnerable customers later this year.
Utility Week recently reported on the appetite for a shared priority services register (PSR) to help the most vulnerable and Auriga believes its system will be a step in the right direction.
The public benefit entity, which manages the charity trusts for Severn Trent, United Utilities and Thames, says its solution is a planned national portal that individual companies can optionally adopt.
Under the system, customers will only have to register their details once and other utilities using the portal would have access to that data, helping them to prioritise their vulnerable customers.
Auriga chief executive Mark Abrams told Utility Week that Thames Water’s existing PSR portal was being used as a prototype and while it can currently only share information within Thames, the back-end will be modified to allow it to communicate with other companies.
A non-live prototype of this portal is expected to be available within the next two or three months.
Abrams added: “It’s a great personal ambition for a single and shared PSR to help consumers register in one place, however there are many challenges to overcome.
“We’re putting the stepping stones in place to extend our offering and provide an added-value service which will ultimately benefit the country’s vulnerable consumers and help energy and water companies attract the ‘hard to reach’ people who may not wish to contact their utility companies directly.
“Although we’re still in the early planning stages, the new technology solution will securely and legally collect confidential customer data that will then be made available for the water and energy sectors to prioritise help for their vulnerable customers.
“It will seamlessly plug in to any website and send data to ensure vulnerable people gain the support they need.”
Speaking on a recent #AskUsAnything webinar, former Npower boss and member of the Committee on Fuel Poverty Paul Massara said it was “shocking” that there were still isolated registers for energy and water customers.
Elizabeth Blakelock, principal policy manager at Citizens Advice, agreed and said: “There is an acceptance from most quarters that that would be incredibly valuable, particularly from a consumer perspective but also from the perspective of people who use those registers.”
She added there was a concern over the pace of bringing in a shared register, and asked whether now was the time to “put the pedal to the metal and make those commitments which have been made, particularly around water and energy, and to have that shared register up and running and benefitting consumers”.