Elenia, in cooperation with 4H, coaches young people to care for priority groups during major power disruptions
Elenia has introduced a new service in which it provides extra care to its customers belonging to priority groups during major power disruptions. The care service is part of Elenia's newly published set of customer promises.
As part of the development of the care service, Elenia together with 4H has started training young people as care ambassadors to participate in this new service. At the beginning of the project, trained young people from local 4H associations make customer care visits in Saarijärvi and Pälkäne during major power disruptions. Local residents can register with the service through Elenia's customer service.
Although the modernisation of the ageing electricity network has progressed as planned over the last decade, power outages continue to hamper the smooth running of daily life from time to time. Storms, snow loads and thunderstorms can cause major power disruptions when falling and breaking trees tear down overhead lines.
“With good information services, we want to serve people belonging to priority groups who may have restrictions on their everyday life, for example, due to their advanced age, state of health or similar reasons. This is why we offer our logged in customers a 24/7 hotline for assistance and engage in targeted information efforts during exceptional circumstances in electricity distribution,” says Jarno Lindén, Stakeholder Relations Manager at Elenia.
“4H associations in Saarijärvi and Pälkäne are now joining our care service and, at the moment, we are developing our cooperation into practical actions. Young people trained by 4H in these locations go on care visits and make sure that our customers can cope at home during long power outages. We arranged visits with the customers by calling them in the event of a power outage,” Lindén continues.
“At 4H, we enthusiastically joined in piloting the care ambassador service. The two selected 4H associations are experts in youth employment and they were very interested about the new form of activity. Care ambassadors visit the customer as agreed, bring a small Elenia care pack as a gift and, among other things, instruct on the use of backup power to charge the mobile phone. Both associations now have trained care ambassadors over the age of 18 ready to serve the special group customers during a prolonged power outage,” says Anu Parviainen, Development Manager at Finnish 4H Federation.
The customer can register with Elenia's new service by themselves or a close relative may also register the customer belonging to the priority group.
The free care service provides the following benefits
- Free 24/7 service number
- Information package on power outage preparations and actions during power outages
- Disruption notification service for power distribution disturbances
- Preparation message before major power disruptions
- Customer visits in Saarijärvi and Pälkäne areas by 4H's care ambassadors during long power outages and major power disruptions