Powering inclusivity for Northern Ireland’s energy customers

The strategy

Power NI have been a household name for over 90 years in Northern Ireland. As the largest electricity supplier in the region, they energise over half a million homes and businesses.

Like many other sectors the energy sector faces many challenges particularly due to the evolving energy crisis and tackling carbon emissions. 

Last winter (2022) marked a key turning point for residential customers of which some struggled to pay bills or keep their electricity on. Power NI placed a real focus on supporting vulnerable customers and spent time on the ground with the people of Northern Ireland to understand how they could support.

Outside many initiatives supporting the community and working with charities to support the financially vulnerable Power NI quickly observed that their website was not fully accessible for those with additional needs particularly visual and cognitive.

It’s estimated that over 20% of the Northern Irish population have physical or mental impairments which has substantial effects on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities such as topping up their keypad meter, submitting meter readings or switching their electricity provider.

Power NI recognised that not only was it the right thing to do – to make their website accessible to all but that it made good business sense too with an addressable 20% of the market potentially being unable to carry out core tasks on the website.