Quality of service in the Netherlands

Growing competition between utilities, changing legislation and increased usage of sensitive and disturbing end-user equipment, are some reasons for growing attention for the customers\´ view towards the product electricity and its related services. This growing interest certainly does not mean that the technical quality level always has to be increased. This depends mainly on the requirements and expectations of the customers. Achieving a reliable power supply at high quality level requires enormous investments. For electric utilities, it is important to know how the customers value the delivered products and services. Utilities need new tools and techniques to search for an optimal quality level for each customer. Product differentiation and additional services can be developed if the right information is available. In 1994 KEMA started a project called: quality of service. During the project different methods and techniques have been developed. In this paper three tools are presented. The "customer simulator", the Dutch power quality monitoring programme and the "PSQ-indicator".