The Energy and Water Ombudsman Western Australia is an independent, impartial body that investigates and resolves complaints about electricity, gas and water services providers.
The role of the Energy and Water Ombudsman is principally to do three things:
The Gas Industry Ombudsman Scheme was established on 31 May 2004 and the Electricity Ombudsman Scheme was established on 22 September 2005. At that time the two schemes were combined under the title of Energy Ombudsman. When the Water Services Ombudsman Scheme commenced on 1 January 2014, the existing Energy Ombudsman expanded to become the Energy and Water Ombudsman.
The Board of Energy and Water Ombudsman (Western Australia) Limited (the Board) is the governing body of the Energy and Water Ombudsman. It comprises seven directors: an independent chair, three customer representative directors, a gas industry representative director, an electricity industry representative director and a water industry representative director. Details of the membership, responsibilities and operations of the Board are documented in the Energy and Water Ombudsman Constitution November 2013 (Constitution) and the Charter of the Energy and Water Ombudsman November 2013 (Charter).
The Members of the Energy and Water Ombudsman Scheme as at 30 June 2016 are listed below.
Gas Industry Members – 30 June 2016 |
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Electricity Industry Members – 30 June 2016 |
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Water Industry Members – 30 June 2016 |
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The Western Australian Ombudsman, Chris Field, performs the functions of the Energy and Water Ombudsman under a service agreement with the Board. The Energy and Water Ombudsman is not affiliated with any electricity, gas or water providers or consumer organisations and therefore acts impartially in the investigation and resolution of complaints.
The Energy and Water Ombudsman utilises the governance structures of the Western Australian Ombudsman, including an Audit and Risk Management Committee.
The office of the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Office) is located within the office of the Western Australian Ombudsman. This provides the opportunity to achieve significant benefits through scale and scope economies that would not be available to a small stand-alone Energy and Water Ombudsman Scheme. It also creates the opportunity for improved quality service delivery through the highly developed, specialised expertise existing in the office of the Western Australian Ombudsman.
At 30 June 2016, the Energy and Water Ombudsman was comprised of 10.5 full time equivalent employees reporting to the Western Australian Ombudsman in his role as Energy and Water Ombudsman. The structure of the Office is shown below.
The Energy and Water Ombudsman receives, investigates and resolves complaints and disputes from residential and small business customers about their electricity, gas or water services provider. The following table describes matters that the Energy and Water Ombudsman can and cannot investigate.
Matters the Energy and Water Ombudsman CAN Investigate |
Matters the Energy and Water Ombudsman CANNOT Investigate |
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The Energy and Water Ombudsman also liaises closely with Scheme Member companies in order to achieve effective dispute resolution, and with the community to provide effective access to our services.
During 2015-16, we focused on achieving the following key priorities:
Consistent with other industry ombudsman schemes, the Energy and Water Ombudsman has a focus on the resolution of complaints by the electricity, gas or water services provider and asks people making a complaint to try to resolve the matter with the provider first. The Energy and Water Ombudsman investigates complaints that remain unresolved after referral to a higher level contact with the electricity, gas or water provider.
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