Oncor Electric names chief customer officer

Texas electricity transmission business Oncor Electric Delivery has appointed a chief customer officer to help it improve relations with its 7 million customers.
Brenda Jackson, formerly a senior vice president in charge of operations, is taking on that newly created title.

Jackson has worked for Oncor and its predecessor companies for 36 years.
"I plan to do a lot of listening initially," she said in a telephone interview. She said she'll be listening to see how the company can better communicate with its customers.

The move comes after big winter power outages, and a difficult deployment of high-tech smart meters. Some Oncor customers have complained of big jumps in their power bills after the new meters were put in place.

“Recent events have shown us that we need to reinforce our relationship with the people we serve and step up and help them,” Oncor Chairman and CEO Bob Shapard said in a press release. “Customers told us they need us. We’re listening and changing.”
The change will only come about as Oncor adjusts its culture to be more customer-centered, Jackson said. One of her goals is to make Oncor employees feel more comfortable talking to customers.

The company also is working to do a better job of communicating information during power outages, and educating customers on how consumers can benefit from smart meters.

"We're returning to the experience I had when I first came to Dallas Power & Light Co.," Jackson said. "Not a single decision got made at the company that didn't take the customer into consideration."

Oncor Electric Delivery is the electricity transmission subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings.

Private equity firms TPG Capital, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co. and Goldman Sachs created Energy Future Holdings by acquiring North Texas utility business TXU Corp. in October 2007. The $45 billion deal (including assumed debt) is the largest leveraged buyout in history.

The new ownership group cut TXU into three pieces: electric generation (Luminant), retail electricity (TXU Energy) and transmission (Oncor).

(From Dallas Business Journal)