Today, 28 February 2024, E.DSO held a Crisis, Customer Communication and Management webinar, organised by its Customer Empowerment Working Stream, where four European DSOs shared their insights on how they communicated with their customers in times of big crises.
Ruslan Volynets from the Ukrainian DSO DTEK shared DTEK’s strategy regarding the current ongoing war. It was pointed out that, since the beginning of 2024, they have had 29 attacks on energy infrastructure. Key take away: ‘The most important thing is ensuring that the customer knows from which channel to get reliable information and to adopt a proactive approach as a DSO, so as to minimise negative feedback.’
Abel Santamaria Rivera from the Spanish DSO i-DE shared strategies used during the September 2023 flooding in Spain, which affected 250,518 customers. Key take away: ‘When it comes to crisis situations you have to always keep customers informed and ensure continuous engagement with customers and key stakeholders.’
Vilizara Lazarova and Clémentine Treppoz from the French DSO Enedis discussed Crisis Communication Strategies during the Ciarán and Domingos storms, which affected over one million customers. Key take away: ‘It is important to have public relation strategies that are focused on explanation and illustration and to have the necessary resources ready for deployment to ensure fast response.’
Meltem Beutler from the German DSO Westnetz prepared an impulse session on the flood disasters of July 2021, which affected 5% of their grid region. Key take away: ‘Apart from ensuring good regional and national external communication, it is important to have proper internal communication with your team.
Apart from a big thank you to our speakers, a special thanks goes to Zuzana Vobis Magurová from E.ON and Florine Cardin from Enedis for helping with the organisation of this webinar.
