Thames Water will prioritise asset upgrades and network maintenance during the next two years as it admits customer service performance will remain below the rest of the sector this year.
The company said it did not expect to improve its position of 17th out of 17 water companies for customer experience, as measured by Ofwat’s C-Mex scores, for the remainder of the current asset management period (AMP7) to 2025.
During that time, Thames said it will prioritise investment into making its assets more resilient, with a view to driving longer term improvements in customer satisfaction.
In fact, Thames said it expects its C-Mex score to deteriorate further in the short term due to the publication of its real-time storm discharge map. As the first company to make event duration monitoring (EDM) data available to consumers in near real time it received national media and political scrutiny.
Southern and South West have coastal data available, and Wessex is developing its own customer map. Water UK is coordinating an interactive map of data from all EDMs across England, which it intends to publish this spring.
The company said its scores for 2022/23 were negatively impacted by the drought of summer 2022 and freeze-thaw in the December. These both caused supply interruptions for many water companies as networks struggled to meet demand in the heat or repair bursts quickly enough in the winter.
C-Mex scores are used by Ofwat to measure relative performance between companies with outcome delivery incentives (ODIs) penalties and rewards set against this.
Leakage has been an evergreen issue customers express dissatisfaction about, which the company is seeking to turnaround. Thames admitted it will not meet its leakage reduction target for 2023/24 and forecast 35 megalitres (Ml) more will be lost each day than expected.
The company said its year-end rate is predicted to be 585Ml daily, up from its target of 550Ml.
During the previous reporting year (2022/23) Thames lost 606Ml to leakage daily, which was the highest loss across the sector. Thames’ target was to cut the total by 14Ml per day but its recorded improvement was 10.7Ml daily.
Improving processes to find and repair where water is being lost is one of the central tenets of its turnaround plan as an area that customers expect improvements to be made. Thames said previous failings were due to oversight and governance of improvements to leakage being too fragmented and complex, with inefficient approaches taken to pilot schemes.
Over the coming three years of the turnaround plan, Thames said it will optimise network pressure and carry out mains replacements to reduce leakage rates.
Its three year plan is focused on fixing the basics and changing its operating model, systems and processes to deliver against its ODIs.
Former-chief executive Sarah Bentley previously created an eight-year plan to get Thames back on track and improve its performance after the company had, in her words, been “hollowed out”. After Bentley’s departure, the plan was pared down to reflect customer and environmental priorities.
Looking ahead, Thames named the supply chain partners it will work with to deliver its water resources work from 2025 to 2030. Three consortiums have been formed of six companies, including Arup & Binnies, AtkinsRéalis & Stantec, and Jacobs & Mott MacDonald.