Trust building for collaborative win-win customer solutions

Chief Investigators

Prof. Rebekah Russell-Bennett  (QUT)

Purpose of project

The energy sector needs to transition to a shared value mindset that involves collaboration with customers. It needs to adopt a more open, collaborative and sharing system that co-creates value for all stakeholders to effectively build trust. This theme provides a road map for achieving this outcome.

This opportunity assessment looks to understand customer aspirations and expectations for the energy sector, and measure and enhance the level of trust between customers and service providers in the energy sector. It draws together three crucial and related elements for building trust in the Australian energy sector:

• Understanding customer aspirations and expectations

• Measuring trust

• Building trust between customers and service providers.

The report will explore customer priorities, customers’ perceptions of industry performance relative to these priorities, and ways to align industry performance to priorities and build trust between stakeholders.

Impact of project

The roadmap will identify opportunities that build on the extensive existing processes designed to build trust in the energy sector.

The complex energy sector includes separation in billing, regulation and ownership, and separation between supply, transmission, distribution and retail. The Opportunity Assessment will seek to build cross-cutting capacities across projects that may address some of the structural issues resulting from this complexity.

Project partners – industry and research

QUT (Lead), AGL, CSIRO, Curtin University, Essential Energy, UNSW, UTS, Western Power

Industry Reference Group members

ACOSS, AEMC, AGL, Dept. of Industry, ECA, Essential Energy, Swinburne, Wattwatchers