Customers

The responsibility for our customer policy rests primarily with the divisions that carry our customer products and services and engage in customer-facing activities in their day-to-day business. These are Nuon Business and Nuon Retail for the commercial products and services and Continuon Netbeheer for connections and technical support. The latter has largely outsourced its technical tasks (construction, maintenance, specific services) to the Network Services Division. These ‘customer-facing divisions’ report to one member of the Management Board who carries ultimate responsibility for this aspect of our business operations.

On its customer website www.nuon.com Nuon provides extensive information on its products and services, both for retail and business customers. The information on this site falls within the direct responsibility of the managements of the  Business and Retail Divisions. 

The customer services are under the strict supervision of the Office of Energy Regulation (DTe) whose tasks are to protect consumers, promote transparency of the energy market and safeguard access to the grid. Amongst others, DTe regularly monitors and compares the performance of energy companies. These results are posted on the DTe website. Nuon conducts its activities in conformity with the requirements of DTe.

Nuon is strongly represented in its home market, the Netherlands. This is where we have 83% of our retail customers. Both in Germany and Belgium the number of Nuon customers is growing fast. 
Continuon Netbeheer manages about one third of the Dutch grid connections and over 100,000 kms of transport and distribution lines for electricity. 

Energy awareness has been a priority in Nuon’s customer policy for several years now. We welcomed Al Gore’s documentary in 2006 as a catalyst of our communication efforts to make customers more aware of the choices they themselves can make to use less energy in their business or home. Alongside campaigns to encourage more energy-conscious behaviour, we are developing instruments to put energy-saving products and services within easier reach. In 2007 we opened new energy shops as well as a web store. Customers can obtain advice from certified advisers and take advantage of ‘buy now, pay later’ deals for such products as energy-saving bulbs and plugs, so that the customer makes the saving before paying. 

We see it as our responsibility to help our customers reduce their energy consumption and lower their energy bill. Another of our responsibilities is to keep energy accessible for everyone. This means that we seek to balance good service for all our customers with a careful and considered approach to special situations. Among other things, Nuon’s disconnection policy goes beyond the statutory requirements as we implement the policy all year round and not just in the winter months. We also pursue an active debt assistance policy in cooperation with Municipal Medical Departments. Partly as a result of this, the number of customers we had to disconnect decreased again in 2007.