For the seventh year in a row, Western Power Distribution’s four network licence areas have ensured the group is the best performer in industry regulator Ofgem’s Broad Measure of Customer Satisfaction.

And WPD South Wales became the first licence area of the 14 in the UK to achieve the maximum reward target of 8.9 across all three key service areas: power cuts, connections and general enquiries.

Resources and external affairs director Alison Sleightholm said: “Maintaining the top four places in the BMCS when we know that other electricity distribution networks are working hard to catch us up is an achievement we’re very proud of.

“Becoming the first distribution company to achieve the maximum reward target across all areas is a further demonstration of the hard work and professionalism of staff across our business.”

Ofgem’s incentive mechanism rewards network companies for good performance and imposes penalties when it’s poor. The target for maximum reward is 8.9 out of ten.

The regulator surveys hundreds of customers for each of the 14 UK licence areas each month and asks them to give marks out of ten across the service areas. In total there are over 40 questions covering all aspects of the service customers receive. The scores are then averaged out to give an overall ranking for each licence area.

WPD South Wales topped the UK with an overall score of 9.03, followed by WPD West Midlands on 8.91. WPD South West and WPD East Midlands shared third place on 8.90.