In his third annual State of the Trust Address on October 4, President and CEO Jeffrey Harrison focused on how Citizens employees are “Inspired to Create Value” for our customers and communities. Harrison provided an industry overview, shared accomplishments of the 2018 fiscal year and discussed the company’s strategic plan. Below are highlights from the speech.
Industry Overview
- Consolidation of utilities across the nation for the last few decades has resulted in large utilities with service territories spanning across multiple states.
- When the Vectren acquisition is complete, Citizens Energy Group will be the only large multiple utility provider headquartered in Indiana.
- Utilities across the country are facing large investments to update aging infrastructure and meet new federal safety standards.
- Citizens Energy Group will continue to focus on maximizing the value created by our current utilities and seeking possible partnerships with other utilities that could benefit the Trust and the Central Indiana region. We will continue to be a major supplier of water to nearby water utilities and continue to provide sewage treatment to area conservancy districts and municipal utilities.
2018 Accomplishments
Enhancing Customer Service:
- We have enhanced our self-service and digital engagement capabilities for our customers by adding more than 100 remote payment sites, an online high bill helper tool, and a number of new automated notifications, such as high consumption alerts.
- Enrollment in My Account, our online account management tool, grew 5 percent last year, and for the first time, a majority of our customers are now registered for My Account.
- We’ve seen a 23 percent increase in paperless billing enrollment.
- Revised call-flows and changes to the menu on the interactive voice response system have resulted in a 50 percent reduction in call transfer rates.
Ensuring Cost-Savings and Affordability:
- Given sobering statistics about poverty rates in Marion County, Citizens Energy Group is committed to efficiency and cost savings through process improvements.
- Citizens is forming a collaborative community task force to identify at-risk customers and ensure they are aware of available assistance. Newly implemented machine-learning technology is allowing us to target our promotion of financial assistance programs.
- In 2018, the Quality Systems team provided Lean and Six Sigma general awareness training to more than 90 percent of Citizens employees.
- This past year, we executed a gas supply agreement that achieved $3 million of savings for our customers. Overall, gas bills last winter were reduced by about 4 percent. Over the past decade, our average annual residential gas bill has declined more than 40 percent.
- Our thermal utility recently overhauled the house turbine generator at Perry K to increase electric power production sales to the grid. Due to efficiency efforts like this, steam rates have been reduced by about 6 percent.
- Our value engineering process has resulted in our Long-Term Control Plan projects to address sewer overflows being $400 million below budget and two years ahead of schedule.
- Process improvements and effective planning have reduced wastewater operations and maintenance expenses by 13 percent for the 12-month period ending June 1, 2018.
- Changing systems used for the Septic Tank Elimination Program (STEP) has reduced costs for impacted homeowners 60-80 percent and for the utility about 20 percent.
Restoring Water Quality:
- Over the first 9 months of operation, the DigIndy Tunnel System has prevented more than 500 million gallons of sewage from entering the White River and Eagle Creek across the southern half of Marion County.
- The White River Water Treatment Plant received the Partnership for Safe Water Director’s Award, which establishes Citizens as a high-performing provider of safe drinking water.
Enhancing Employee Engagement:
- Nearly 100 percent of our workforce completed the “Being a Citizens Ambassador” eLearning course to reinforce the purpose of the Trust and how each employee can share our story.
- We rolled out a new career portal that highlights the benefits of working at Citizens.
- More than 50 employees engaged 885 students through the Partnership for Excellence in Research and Learning (PERL) program, designed to engage with and attract students at Indiana-based colleges.
Building a Better Community:
- Our Sharing the Dream event celebrated its 10th anniversary, with nearly 300 employees volunteering at Brookside Park to make needed improvements to the facility.
- The sale of the site of the former coke and manufacturing plant on Prospect Street to the City of Indianapolis for a community justice campus is one of the biggest community redevelopment achievements in our company’s history.
Our Strategic Goals
Our strategic plan is rooted in our Vision and Mission and is guided by our values of Safety, Integrity, Diversity, Teamwork and Quality. The following long-term goals fall under the Trust’s four strategic pillars of Customer Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, Financial Integrity and Performance Excellence.
- We will improve customer satisfaction year over year while addressing affordability.
- We will become an employer of choice in the state of Indiana by emphasizing and improving long-term employee development.
- We will continually improve the financial stability of each business unit.
- We will demonstrate the value Citizens provides to customers and the community.
This year, two students from Purdue University's Sketch Squad joined us and created a graphic recording of the address. The Sketch Squad is an organization that teaches students the art of visual notetaking to help them retain concepts taught in class. The students have the opportunity to take their visual notetaking skills on the road to create graphic recordings at events such as Citizens' State of the Trust. At the end of Harrison's address, the students showcased their drawing on stage, and then displayed it in the lobby area so that attendees could take a closer look upon exiting. Stay tuned for an up-close look!
To conclude the event, a panel of all Citizens' officers answered questions submitted by the audience.