Customer advisory board

• Customer advisory board charter Stromnetz Berlin (PDF 72 kB)

The customer advisory board supports open, transparent and comprehensible communication between Stromnetz Berlin and its customers. It helps with the continued improvement of our customer service, represents customers' interests and puts its own suggestions to our management and the relevant departments. The customer advisory board initiates and designs opportunities for customer engagement and transparency.

Since 2013, we have seen increasing public demand to get more involved with issues relating to power supply and for these to be made more transparent. We welcome this development, because Stromnetz Berlin also believes that more intensive dialogue with customers is of mutual benefit. In conversation with customers and experts, we have spent months discussing how we can create more participation and transparency.

The main response:
We founded a Customer Advisory Board in 2014 which acts as an interface between Stromnetz Berlin and Berlin's residents. The term of office for the first Customer Advisory Board ends in Summer 2017. The second term of office begins on 04.12.2017 an will end in July 2020.

We are happy to have made this wish a reality, and have received lots of valuable suggestions from our Advisory Board members in open, critical discussions.

The Customer Advisory Board should advise Stromnetz Berlin and can, as part of this task, offer significant inspiration to help us develop our customer relationships. The Customer Advisory Board's charter sets out the main areas of responsibility:

• Promoting transparency in the operation of the network
• The public image and communication of Stromnetz Berlin with customers
• The initiating and design of offers which depict the operation of the energy distribution network as an important part of the energy supply in an easily understandable way
• Possibilities for the network operator to promote energy-efficient behaviour and to contribute to implementing the energy transition in Germany
• Potential improvement of customer service standards.

The Customer Advisory Board exercises a right of initiative in suggesting its own topics and recommendations to Stromnetz Berlin. The Customer Advisory Board can make decisions which will act as recommendations to Stromnetz Berlin.

If you are interested in energy supply and the energy revolution and if you enjoy bringing your own ideas to the table, you are the right kind of person for the customer advisory board:

• As a member of the customer advisory board, you will receive greater insights into Stromnetz Berlin's business. You are an intermediary between the company and the public: You help us to get a better understanding of our customers' requirements and you make the complex area of energy supply and the energy revolution more accessible to the public.
• You develop your own suggestions and ideas about how Stromnetz Berlin can get closer to its customers, how we can explain energy supply better and what we can do to support our customers better in improving their energy efficiency.
• As an optional extension to the customer advisory board meetings, Stromnetz Berlin offers members an exclusive programme of visits and excursions. Over the three years, you will get to know all of Stromnetz Berlin's main facilities, talk to our experts and gain an inside knowledge of Berlin's energy supply for yourself.
  
  

Stromnetz Berlin carries out a fundamental feasibility check on all of the customer advisory board's suggestions. At its next meeting, the customer advisory board will receive qualified feedback.

Membership is voluntary, but members receive a lump sum of EUR 50 per year as compensation for their time and effort, to cover travel costs and miscellaneous expenses.

Anyone living in Berlin who is at least 16 years old (under-18s require consent from a parent or guardian) can apply to become a member of the customer advisory board. Employees of Stromnetz Berlin and associated companies and their relatives may not apply.
 

The customer advisory board will have 24 members. The first half of the members will be drawn at random from the valid applications received, with one member selected for each Berlin district. The second half of the members are selected based on their application documents, with the aim of ensuring the best possible representation of Berlin's residents in all their diversity. The draw and selection of members takes place under observation by a neutral third party.

Working for the customer advisory board is voluntary. Every member receives an annual lump sum of EUR 50 as compensation for their time and effort, to cover travel costs and miscellaneous expenses.
 

The customer advisory board meets three times a year. The times and dates of these meetings are selected in consultation with all members to ensure that they fit as well as possible around work and family commitments. For the most part, the customer advisory board will determine its own agenda. Stromnetz Berlin provides the space and infrastructure for the customer advisory board to carry out its work free of charge. During the meetings, Stromnetz Berlin will organise free childcare for those members with young children.
 

The second period of office of the Customer Advisory Board started in December 2017 and will end in Summer 2020. There are three regular meetings per year. If required, the Customer Advisory Board can hold more meetings, having consulted Stromnetz Berlin.
 

The customer advisory board's term of office is three years. This relatively long term of office should give members of the customer advisory board the opportunity to become a team and address issues with some continuity.
 

Definitively: Yes. The customer advisory board is of personal importance to both directors, which is why all suggestions that the customer advisory board puts to Stromnetz Berlin are passed to senior management for their information and an opinion.

The Directors will also look to talk directly with members of the customer advisory board: A member of senior management will be present at each customer advisory board meeting to inform the board, respond to questions and take suggestions.

You are welcome to send an email to
kundenbeirat@stromnetz-berlin.de.