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It’s 10 a.m. on a Wednesday and the phones are ringing at National Grid Customer Contact Centers. Some customers have questions about their bills, others need to connect or disconnect service. The phone call might start at a Customer Contact Center, but many other departments work together as a team with customers – especially when a house is under construction.

Making Contact: Customer Contact Center
When a contractor works with a customer to build a house, they also must contact the local utility to have electricity and/or gas delivered to the site. Working with National Grid, contractors can submit their request by phone, fax or on the web.

“Within 24 hours, one of our customer service representatives must verify all submitted information with the contractor,” said Tony Pini, senior vice president for Customer Service. “Then, we initiate a new account for the address and add this information into the billing system.”

Next, a new service request is generated for electricity and/or gas and an order number is assigned to the case. All of this information is then forwarded to the Regional Design office.

Design: Building the Site Plans
Once a design supervisor receives the order, it is assigned to a planner/engineer based on the location of the home site. Within 48 hours, the contractor is contacted by phone to verify his or her needs. A list of requirements that must be met before National Grid can proceed also is explained to the contractor. For example, the contractor must insure that all rights of way are accessible and documented. A written list of requirements is also sent to the contractor as a reminder.

Once the contractor provides the needed information/plans, the planner/engineer conducts a site visit to determine any additional needs. For example, if the home is located beyond 100 feet from the existing power source, poles may need to be set before service lines can be built.

Next, any related billing is coordinated for these additional needs while easement documentation is prepared for any company-owned poles, pipes or other equipment installed on private property. Easements insure that customers are in agreement on the proposed location of our equipment and that National Grid has permanent rights of way to maintain this equipment.

After payment and signed easements are received, a job packet is prepared that contains the bill of materials, any permits required and design sketches for the property that are needed to provide energy to the home. This information is provided to an area resource coordinator who assigns the project to Transmission Distribution and/or Gas field supervisors.

Customer Operations: Building the Job
“After receiving the job packet, our field supervisors check the job to insure that all materials and equipment required to build that job are available,” said Rita Moran, vice president for customer focus. “Upon the supervisor’s approval, our area resource coordinators schedule and assign the work to crews. Most jobs are scheduled about three to four weeks out.”

Dig Safe is also contacted to notify all utilities (including phone and cable) to mark their underground facilities. Dig Safe is a not-for-profit organization that keeps track of all buried cables and pipes and helps contractors to ‘dig safely’ and prevent disturbing existing underground facilities. Then, on the scheduled date crews build the job.

Once construction is complete, clerical staff close out the order and the Regional Design office is notified about any changes to the original design that were necessary due to matters such as rocky soil or tree roots that required the crew to dig in a slightly different location. Planning teams make the adjustments to the design plan to reflect the work as built. Additionally, if gas service was requested, maps of the service location are scanned and saved in a database for future retrieval.

Service: Energizing the Home
After the job is completed, the home must be inspected to meet safety requirements. Once the inspection report is received, the electric meter at the home is set within five to 10 business days depending on location. The gas meter is set once the job is completed by National Grid and the customer installs a permanent gas appliance. Then, the homeowner can call the Customer Contact Center to make arrangements for the account to be established in his or her name after closing on the home.