Mark Wilkinson uses the aftermath of Storm Arwen as an example. “If there is an outage for four hours, that’s one problem; if I have an outage for three days, that’s a completely different problem. A different group of people becomes vulnerable.” Customers who are not vulnerable at the beginning of an event could become so.

“After Storm Arwen, the village I live in didn’t have power. I don’t consider myself or my family to be vulnerable in a traditional sense. But it was dark and very cold, and by day four we were starting to feel like we were vulnerable without power.”

Northumbrian is therefore considering what emergencies of different durations mean for vulnerability. “We want to move beyond the slightly one-dimensional nature of the PSR to examine different scenarios and what they mean for vulnerability.”

Extra data can help by making it clearer who to prioritise in the event of an outage, Wilkinson says. For example, the non-household element of the PSR includes schools. If there is a water outage on a Saturday or Sunday, schools should be further down the list of priority than some other non-household customers. “A list doesn’t necessarily have quality data, and that is where additional information has potential. What else can you add?”

In working out who to prioritise, Wilkinson says, utilities “need to be more dynamic”. “The part that is missing is the model that shows who will be affected most if I have a two-hour outage in an area, a four-hour outage, or a ten-hour outage.”

As well as emergencies, affordability of energy and water is set to become a hot topic again in the wake of the war in Iran, he believes. “Customers don’t always know what support is out there, and they may struggle. And obviously they are vulnerable to other price rises. The fuel price going through the roof affects everything. Inevitably some people will be saying, ‘I need to fill the car up today, I can’t pay the water bill’.”

People may also not want to admit they are struggling. “That is where you need innovative ways of discovering who’s out there and a personalised approach to communication.”

This may means adjusting channels for vulnerable customers as appropriate. “Do they need an additional language? When should we message digitally rather than on paper? When do we need to send someone out because the other approaches aren’t working?” Wilkinson asks.

He is interested in the potential of AI to help solve these challenges. “AI delivers efficiencies we’re interested in exploring. We haven’t used it in the PSR space yet.

“We need make sure we have the right guardrails and protect customers who might be excluded by any new system.

“The beauty at the moment is using AI to find the things we can’t see. I think that’s where the big potential is for companies in the short term.”

Aarthi Kumar of CKDelta says the team has made △Priority a tool that could be used by any water and energy company. “People tend to believe you can solve any problem with AI. But when you actually use it to help with a challenge such as vulnerability, there are big challenges in terms of data privacy, security and data quality.” As the technology has been proven at UK Power Networks, CKDelta is exploring rolling out more features, providing more automation and efficiencies through generative AI, Kumar says.

“Ultimately, AI should make utilities more responsive to customers in vulnerable situations. As we identify more people, the algorithms get better, and then we can target others.

“Eventually we hope to sign up or reach out to everybody that is vulnerable – leaving no one behind.”