Getting Back to Normal After a Disaster Customer

Transcription

1 Getting Back to Normal After a Disaster Customer Mitch Carmosino Manager, Accounts Receivable Duke Energy Florida Karen Sparkman Director, Customer Experience Operations TECO Robin Ferrary Director, Receivables Management CenterPoint Energy 1

2 Duke Energy Florida Hurricane Irma - Credit and Collections Mitch Carmosino Manager, Accounts Receivable Our purpose Power the lives of our customers and the vitality of our communities.

3 Irma Strikes Florida September 10 10% of the US population in the storm s path The entire state of Florida was moderately or severely impacted Damage to electric grid, sewage, and roads Widespread power loss throughout the Florida peninsula 1,982 poles broken in Duke Energy Florida s footprint 1.4M Duke Energy Florida s customers without power for extended periods of time Two densely populated counties in Duke Energy Florida s territory were designated as being severely impacted 3

4 Hurricane Irma s Path of Destruction 4

5 Duke Energy s Philosophy Safety first! Take care of Florida employees All hands on deck for employees in other jurisdictions Focus on restoration Help our customers in time of disaster 5

6 Before the Storm Duke Energy Florida positioned favorably August month end metrics indicated a positive trend Delinquent balances were down ~2% Revenue up 3% Net dollars charged off as a percent of revenue remained static 6

7 Hurricane Strategy All collection activities stopped September 11, and phased in: Mailing of delinquent notices October 17 Outbound delinquency call campaigns October 25 Assessing late payment charges October 27 Resumed billing cycle non-pay disconnects November 2 Resumed defaulted arrangement non-pay disconnects phased in November 9 through November 27 Suspended mid-life deposits September 11 through October 31 Back to normal December 4 7

8 Extended Payment Terms Standard short term credit extensions Extended monthly installment terms for impacted customers offered through January monthly installments with 1 st installment due with current bill 4 monthly installments with 25% down now 8

9 Aftermath Steady increase in arrears beginning September January 2018 charge-offs began including uncollectible dollars, which failed to charge off in 2017 due to the pause of collections Anticipate an increase in future charge-offs due to the increase in dollars from defaulted payment terms and the catch up on non-pay disconnections on delinquent accounts Expect arrears balances to levelize by March 2018 and fluctuate within the 5 year average 9

10 Mitch Carmosino Office Cell

11 Hurricane Irma s Impact on TECO Karen Sparkman Director, Customer Experience Operations 11

12 Tampa Electric - Preparation and Restoration Initial planning began on September 3 As close as 72 hours away from Florida, the forecasted track was middle to east coast, we were planning on the following: 200,000+ customers out 1374 external distribution line resources, 372 tree workers, 40 transmission, and 100 damage assessors in addition to our internal workforce of 338 distribution line, 42 transmission line, 150 tree, and 114 damage assessors, 33 substation electricians From that point on, the forecast continually shifted west and we began to plan for a more significant event Resource acquisition and lodging were challenging due to competition from other utilities and roughly 5 million Florida residents evacuating Final resource acquired totaled: 2179 external distribution line resources, 646 tree workers, 60 transmission, and 106 damage assessors 12

13 Tampa Electric Preparation and Restoration Outages began on Sunday, 9/10 as winds increased, peaking after midnight. Sustained winds between 70 and 90 mph with gusts to 115. Restoration continued through Sunday in the field and Sunday night through transmission switching. Outages at 335,000 with roughly 425,000 affected over the course of the event. While there were transmission and substation outages, these did not impede restoration due to timely repairs Total Florida Outages 6.5M of 10.5M Customers (62%) 6 Incidents bases were fully established on Monday and Tuesday Restoration began on Monday shortly after 8 am when winds conditions became safe to work in Estimated time of restoration (ETR) was established on Tuesday based on damage assessment (All customers essentially restored by end of day on Sunday) 13

14 Tampa Electric Customer Experience Key Stats Incoming call volume was over 500,000 total calls, a near 400% increase of a typical week. About 115,000 calls handled by a live agent, 153% of a typical week. A little over 5% of these calls represent gas emergency calls handled. Nearly 100 CE employees were storm riders, standing up a 24X7 operation to ensure employees were safely available to take calls as the storm passed. Service level was ~ 90%, 24X7, with an average speed of answer of 47 seconds. 500,000 s sent to customers in advance of the storm to prepare and ~54,000 automated restoration calls. Key Statistics During Hurricane Irma Nearly 1,000 personal outbound calls were placed to customers to verify if services were on or off. The Outage Map received nearly 2M clicks with more than 1.2M unique visitors, a 2356% increase from normal volume. Power Update enrollments increased by nearly 27,000 which was a 217% increase approximately 40,000 customers are now enrolled. Portal enrollment increased 4% with nearly 410,000 customer accounts created. Our MARS mutual aid partners fielded about 22,000 calls, representing 20% of total volume during highest volume days. 14

15 Tampa Electric Credit & Collections Dunning was stopped on September 7 th, 2017 and resumed on October 4 th, 2017 Members of our Revenue Protection team confirmed service restoration for customers being sent home from the hospital TECO experienced an impact in the following areas post-storm: Delinquent balances Bad debt Requests for payment arrangements 15

16 Tampa Electric - JDP Impact on Florida Utilities Overall Customer Satisfaction Index 2018 Wave Wave 2 Change Clay Electric Cooperative Duke Energy-Florida Florida Power & Light Gulf Power JEA Lakeland Electric Lee County Electric Cooperative OUC SECO Energy Tampa Electric Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative Florida Average Overall Customer Satisfaction Index 2017 Midpoint 2018 Midpoint Change Clay Electric Cooperative Duke Energy-Florida Florida Power & Light Gulf Power JEA Lakeland Electric Lee County Electric Cooperative OUC SECO Energy Tampa Electric Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative Florida Average

17 Tampa Electric Lessons Learned Category Size & Strength of Storm Employee Assignment Outage Management Employee Assignment Credit & Collections Key Lessons Learned Need to identify what changes are necessary to prepare for and respond to a Category 4/5 hurricane or similar serious emergency Need to identify mission-critical and key roles, and assess employee skillsets; annually identify specific employee resource and back-up; implement annual training program Need to streamline Outage communications technologies & more regular & timely ETR updates Need more non-csp employees to take calls & expand mutual aid Pre-plan for Billing and Payment operations (stop dunning, estimates, no late fees) and have standard storm relating billing messages that could quickly inserted into production (on bill and social media) as applicable 17

18 Getting Back to Normal After a Disaster Customer and Employee Focus Robin Ferrary CenterPoint Energy, Director Receivables Management 18

19 Material Presented on a Courtesy Basis: This presentation is being provided for informational purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive. Neither CenterPoint Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries and affiliates (the Company ), nor its employees or representatives, make any representation or warranty (express or implied) relating to this information. By reviewing this presentation, you agree that the Company will not have any liability related to this information or any omissions or misstatements contained herein. You are encouraged to perform your own independent evaluation and analysis. Third Party Information: This presentation contains third party information, including information provided by the various sources identified on the respective slides. CenterPoint Energy, Inc. has not independently verified this information. You are encouraged to perform your own independent evaluation and analysis. 19

20 About CenterPoint Energy An Electric and Natural Gas Utility Electric Transmission and Distribution Electric utility operations with ~2.4 million metered customers across ~5,000 square miles in and around Houston, Texas 19 th largest U.S. investor-owned electric utility by customer base (1) 86,828,902 MWh delivered Natural Gas Distribution Regulated gas distribution jurisdictions in six states with ~3.4 million customers 6 th largest U.S. gas distribution company by customer base (1) Delivered 411 bcf of natural gas Energy Services Non-regulated competitive natural gas supply and related energy services serving ~33,000 commercial and industrial customers across 33 states Delivered 777 bcf of natural gas Source: Form K (1) As of Dec. 31, 2015 per EEI and AGA 20

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23 Advance Preparations Emergency Operating Plans Enterprise Wide Our Electric and Natural Gas businesses each has an Emergency Operations Plan Annual drill to test our emergency response Coordinate our EOP with state and local officials Work with a mutual assistance network that allows us to provide/receive assistance to/from other utilities across the country following natural disasters Contracts for fuel, lodging and materials are executed in advance so we re ready if a storm strikes Work with third party Call Centers and Outside Collections Agents to coordinate and align activities Leverage workforce in all CNP territories for field operations and Call Center support 23

24 Advance Preparations Emergency Operating Plans Credit & Collections Maintain critical business functions, by event type Employee Role Coordinated among Billing, Credit, Call Center, Remittance Communicate EOP responsibilities Verify system access Completed training for EOP role Recommends dunning strategies, by event type in coordination with with Field, Call Center, Billing & Credit Defines communication strategy between EOP Commander and Business Units Conduct post mortem review to identify gaps, challenges and opportunities after each event 24

25 Wind Event vs. Water Event Hurricane Ike Hurricane Harvey Emergency plans are dependent on the type of emergency event Ike First responders were able to make it to their work locations the day after the storm Harvey Heavy flooding delayed response times to 3+ days 25

26 Timeline Preparations Outreach EOP Harvey Makes Landfall Resources Operations Employee Assistance Status Aug. 22, 2017 Electric and Gas Operations, logistics, fleet, service centers and facilities make preparations Begin posting storm readiness tips and safety information on social media Aug. 23, 2017 Regulatory and Gov t Relations work with officials News release distributes on hurricane preparedness to employees on preparedness Aug. 24, 2017 Electric and Gas Operations activate EOP Media interviews Publish social media messages on preparedness and safety Increase in employee messages on preparedness and EOP assignments Aug. 25, 2017 Harvey makes landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near Port Aransas, Texas Over the next five days, Harvey drops more than 50 inches of rain across our service territory Aug. 26, 2017 Activate Incident Command Center Issue news release on damage assessment and restoration update First wave of mutual assistance crews for Gas and Electric Operations Aug. 26-early Sept Electric Operations builds a mobile substation to restore service to the Memorial area Gas Operations helps the city of Beaumont address a breach in the pipeline under the Neches River Sept. 1, 2017 CNP announces Employee 1 st Fund to support impacted employees CNP announces $1.25 Million to assist Harvey recovery Sept. 7-8, 2017 Electric Operations resumes normal operations for most employees on Sept. 7 Gas Operations resumes normal operations on Sept. 8 A Corporate Response Team is established to manage ongoing issues 26

27 Caring for Our Customers Customer Service 485,455 calls to the call center 147,612 were answered by agents with IVR handling the remainder 352,629 outage notifications delivered through PAS service 22,257 new PAS enrollments 160 Facebook posts that reached 1,095,314 people 566 tweets that reached 2,531,685 people 630,206 visits to CenterPointEnergy.com At the height of the storm, web traffic was more than 600% higher than average Translated more than 50 communications into Spanish 27

28 Caring for Our Employees Community Giving & Employee Support Employee home repair program to help employees focus on restoration efforts More than $125,000 donated to CNP Employees 1 st Fund; company matching contributions up to $200, calls to the EOP Employee Assistance hotline 340 employees impacted with home or vehicle damage 34 responses from employees offering shelter to another employee 68 responses to CNP rideshare program 46 children cared for in EOP daycare at CNP Tower 28

29 Returning Back to Normal: Be Flexible Some areas of Texas experienced over 50 of rainfall Late stage flooding of watersheds, rivers and lakes forced roads and highways to be impassible for extended periods of time Both Houston Airports closed for 5 days Impacted freeway traffic for 4 or more days US Postal Service offline for 8 days Immediately halted Dunning due to inability to post payments Then, suspended Dunning for 30 days to align Gas and Electric operations Reset Gas dunning to zero, first DNP notices in October

30 Robin Ferrary CenterPoint Energy Director, Receivables Management (713)

31 Questions Mitch Carmosino Manager, Accounts Receivable Duke Energy Florida Karen Sparkman Director, Customer Experience Operations TECO Robin Ferrary Director, Receivables Management CenterPoint Energy 31