Energy news in general

Chrysalis

The_Green_Hornet said:

Thousands to get payouts over forced meter fitting

Tens of thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each, and could see debts written off, in response to the scandal over the forced fitting of prepayment meters.

Energy companies are paying out more £70m in compensation and financial support to customers.

It follows a review by the regulator, Ofgem, of the way suppliers switched often vulnerable customers to paying upfront, without their agreement, after they fell behind with their bills.

Thousands in line for payouts over forced meter fitting scandal - BBC News

What makes Ofgem decide this kind of action is needed given they tryto ignore everything consumers tell them?  Do they monitor for patterns on the Ombudsman, reacting to bad press?

MattMattMattUK

Chrysalis said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Thousands to get payouts over forced meter fitting

Tens of thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each, and could see debts written off, in response to the scandal over the forced fitting of prepayment meters.

Energy companies are paying out more £70m in compensation and financial support to customers.

It follows a review by the regulator, Ofgem, of the way suppliers switched often vulnerable customers to paying upfront, without their agreement, after they fell behind with their bills.

Thousands in line for payouts over forced meter fitting scandal - BBC News

What makes Ofgem decide this kind of action is needed given they tryto ignore everything consumers tell them?

They do not "ignore everything consumers tell them", they do their best to ignore the shouty idiots who seem to think that energy should be free. That being said I cannot see why they have decided that any compensation is due in these cases. There were people who were not paying their bills and refusing to engage with their energy supplier about sorting out their debt and payments for more than a year, those people should face penalties, not handed money.

Chrysalis said:
Do they monitor for patterns on the Ombudsman, reacting to bad press?

They try to tread a fine line between idiot consumers, sensible consumers, idiot ministers, contradictory statements from government about what they want them do and what their remit allows them to do and trying to not force the energy suppliers into insolvency (although they did their best after Russia invaded Ukraine when they forced suppliers to sell below cost for nearly a year). Sometimes they are forced to put out a statement in response to a particularly uneducated comment from a government minister, or a huge media tantrum.

The general complaint about Ofgem is that they are not responsive enough to consumer's demands. From the consultations that have taken place the general summary of consumers demands is that energy suppliers should be forced to sell energy below cost and that there is a small but vocal minority who want standing charges abolished because they want to be subsidised by other people. Those two groups would be best ignored.

mmmmikey

MattMattMattUK said:

Chrysalis said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Thousands to get payouts over forced meter fitting

Tens of thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each, and could see debts written off, in response to the scandal over the forced fitting of prepayment meters.

Energy companies are paying out more £70m in compensation and financial support to customers.

It follows a review by the regulator, Ofgem, of the way suppliers switched often vulnerable customers to paying upfront, without their agreement, after they fell behind with their bills.

Thousands in line for payouts over forced meter fitting scandal - BBC News

What makes Ofgem decide this kind of action is needed given they tryto ignore everything consumers tell them?

They do not "ignore everything consumers tell them", they do their best to ignore the shouty idiots who seem to think that energy should be free. That being said I cannot see why they have decided that any compensation is due in these cases. There were people who were not paying their bills and refusing to engage with their energy supplier about sorting out their debt and payments for more than a year, those people should face penalties, not handed money.

Chrysalis said:
Do they monitor for patterns on the Ombudsman, reacting to bad press?

They try to tread a fine line between idiot consumers, sensible consumers, idiot ministers, contradictory statements from government about what they want them do and what their remit allows them to do and trying to not force the energy suppliers into insolvency (although they did their best after Russia invaded Ukraine when they forced suppliers to sell below cost for nearly a year). Sometimes they are forced to put out a statement in response to a particularly uneducated comment from a government minister, or a huge media tantrum.

The general complaint about Ofgem is that they are not responsive enough to consumer's demands. From the consultations that have taken place the general summary of consumers demands is that energy suppliers should be forced to sell energy below cost and that there is a small but vocal minority who want standing charges abolished because they want to be subsidised by other people. Those two groups would be best ignored.

Yes indeed. Although consumer opinion is an important consideration it is often very badly informed.

Scot_39

The_Green_Hornet said:

Thousands to get payouts over forced meter fitting

Tens of thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each, and could see debts written off, in response to the scandal over the forced fitting of prepayment meters.

Energy companies are paying out more £70m in compensation and financial support to customers.

It follows a review by the regulator, Ofgem, of the way suppliers switched often vulnerable customers to paying upfront, without their agreement, after they fell behind with their bills.

Thousands in line for payouts over forced meter fitting scandal - BBC News

All very well, and good some might argue, but the reality is their is a real energy debt crisis impact upon us all not just those in debt/arrears using Ofgem metrics.

Prepay systems arguably one of the few ways suppliers can stop debt from rising uncontrollably on a daily use basis.  but that then leaves a self disconnect problem for  many if genuinely cannot afford bills.

For scale of debt / arrears problem facing suppliers - and importantly the literally millions of people behind those statistics 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/debt-and-arrears-indicators

Almost third more respectively now in Ofgem 91d+ arrears figures - averaging £1600+ for electric /£1300+ for gas - much higher than those with an agreed debt repayment plan in place. 

Over 1m electric 800k gas - vs c800k, c600k+ those with debt being recovered via active plan.

All may now face carrying the burden of that debt for years to come.

So looking at repayment plan statistics - how quickly is some of that debt being repayed ?  (And so maybe one day at least the recently introduced for covid then increased to £28 special allowance can maybe be removed from many of our bills).

At one supplier the max is averaging over 10yrs (575 weeks at £2 per week if i read Ofgem charts correctly - most suppliers though higher weekly amounts upto £6+ per fuel typically and shorter time frames ). 
[Although to many here even £6 per week maybe £12 for duel fuel so £50pm maybe isn't a lot for many - to put in context  basic UC is only £316/400 for single c£500pm/630 couple (and likely the rent component too low for many so basic has to supplement that)]

But clear the whole debt handling process is arguably far too slow - even pre let alone during a crisis event to stop total in debt / arrears numbers snowballing.

Ofgems knee jerk reactions to media and political response to the reality of some poor forced prepay - to halt and then increase the conditions / hoops suppliers have to go through to enfore prepay - arguably has only made the debt / arrears situation worse for many individuals and firms.

So let's again allow suppliers access to - and ensure they act far faster especially for any who  simply choose not to but can afford to pay - before more people saddled with higher debts that can take years to repay.

The number in 91d+ arrears has been climbing steadily for years - even before Ukraine crisis.  But the cash amount has clearly followed crisis rates (and possibly end of special payments - like £300 quarterly specials, WFA).  Ofgem charts over 10 years - show impacted households in 91d+ arrears with no debt repayment plan  now once again over double 2016 lows.

And perhaps Miliband (and to be fair his policies sane as those in many areas those who proceeded him in that position)  rather than praising the increased payouts - perhaps needs to stop being part of the problem of higher bills, and actually deliver lower bills.

Not ones currently further loaded by net zero add ons for years to come (£1bn curtailment paid last year and growing rapidly, 1p/kWh for cap svt electric to pay older deal CfD rates, not financing spending £10bn + on grid connections and capacity for net zero).

Don't forget in current £1849 svt dd df cap - £198 ex vat policy costs and £88 vat - are non trivial - those 2 alone - 15% - nearly £1 in every £6 - are govt policy related too)

And part of the solution to meet them if not (which seems more likely than easing up on net zero or moving charges back to general taxation)  - so surely should be fighting for better benefits so as those genuinely struggling on those sort of incomes can afford their energy (and other) bills.

Chrysalis

mmmmikey said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Chrysalis said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Thousands to get payouts over forced meter fitting

Tens of thousands of energy customers are set to receive payouts of up to £1,000 each, and could see debts written off, in response to the scandal over the forced fitting of prepayment meters.

Energy companies are paying out more £70m in compensation and financial support to customers.

It follows a review by the regulator, Ofgem, of the way suppliers switched often vulnerable customers to paying upfront, without their agreement, after they fell behind with their bills.

Thousands in line for payouts over forced meter fitting scandal - BBC News

What makes Ofgem decide this kind of action is needed given they tryto ignore everything consumers tell them?

They do not "ignore everything consumers tell them", they do their best to ignore the shouty idiots who seem to think that energy should be free. That being said I cannot see why they have decided that any compensation is due in these cases. There were people who were not paying their bills and refusing to engage with their energy supplier about sorting out their debt and payments for more than a year, those people should face penalties, not handed money.

Chrysalis said:
Do they monitor for patterns on the Ombudsman, reacting to bad press?

They try to tread a fine line between idiot consumers, sensible consumers, idiot ministers, contradictory statements from government about what they want them do and what their remit allows them to do and trying to not force the energy suppliers into insolvency (although they did their best after Russia invaded Ukraine when they forced suppliers to sell below cost for nearly a year). Sometimes they are forced to put out a statement in response to a particularly uneducated comment from a government minister, or a huge media tantrum.

The general complaint about Ofgem is that they are not responsive enough to consumer's demands. From the consultations that have taken place the general summary of consumers demands is that energy suppliers should be forced to sell energy below cost and that there is a small but vocal minority who want standing charges abolished because they want to be subsidised by other people. Those two groups would be best ignored.

Yes indeed. Although consumer opinion is an important consideration it is often very badly informed.

You welcome to have a look at my DCC thread, and dealings with Octopus to form an opinion or not that I am trying to scam some free energy, I am badly informed, ,I am not engaging, and that the current industry practice is ok.

The problem with Ofgem, is they have a too big concern for the industry and consumer protections are lacking.  They have a system that effectively penalises the customer instead of the supplier when a meter breaks.  That is completely backwards.  In regards to the article, the issue with all the dodgy break ins, and not adequate care taken with vulnerable customers, no affordability checks and so on, it is right these remedies are happening, just because some people might be taking advantage deliberately, you cant just treat everyone else as collateral.  The only thing I think I have an issue is with wiping all the debt's.  I think when that sort of action is taken, extreme care is required to only do it where it is appropriate instead of as a blanket policy.

The point matt made (which I only see via your quote), may be the case for "some" people, but it is wrong for Ofgem to dismiss everyone with the same brush.  It seems quite remarkable for example a supplier of TE doesnt get paid, and then Ofgem intervene, but a consumer being abused by a supplier is expected to jump through hoops with the Ombudsman and also having to argue against unfair practices Ofgem have authorised (such as EAC being used for billing)..

The reason for legislative compensation schemes, isnt to placate consumers, its to incentivise industry to get their act together, as usually the only language they understand is £££.  If they are forced to compensate for failure, then it transforms into a business case to improve their processes.

The_Green_Hornet

Three gas firms fined £8m by Ofgem for being too slow to attend leaks

Watchdog says fines reflect ‘potentially serious risk to the public’ because of missed callout targets

The energy watchdog for Great Britain has fined three companies £8m for failing to respond to some gas leak emergencies quickly enough, potentially putting the public at “serious risk”.

Ofgem said the three firms – Cadent Gas, Scotland Gas Networks (SGN Scotland) and Southern Gas Networks (SGN Southern) – had agreed to pay the fine after missing callout targets that require them to attend suspected gas leaks within one to two hours in 97% of cases.

Three gas firms fined £8m by Ofgem for being too slow to attend leaks | Energy industry | The Guardian

QrizB

Apparently yesterday was quite an exciting day on the balancing market:

https://watt-logic.com/2025/05/30/high-wind-and-forecasting-errors-cause-havoc-on-the-gb-grid/

I know there are a couple of regulars on this thread who have had differences of opinion over that blog's take on things in the past. It would be good to hear any insights you might have regarding yesterday's events?

molerat

Something to make you weep

Found whilst rummaging in my stored files from 2004

MattMattMattUK

For the standard electricity tariff, inflation adjusted that comes out at:
Standing Charge: 18.73p
Unit rate: 12.25p

Xbigman

At the other extreme (the good bit starts at 16 mins 24 secs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ullm7VinI


Darren