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industry & government news

UTILITA TO PAY £500,000 FOR

OVERCHARGING ITS CUSTOMERS

ENERGY FIRM UTILITA has agreed that Utilita had overcharged around
to pay a redress package of £500,000 4,600 electricity prepayment customers
after overcharging almost 40,000 of its by around £8,700 above the prepayment
prepayment customers. price cap between July 2018 and
Money Saving Expert reports that September 2019.
customers were overcharged by a total of As well as this, Ofgem found that over
£125,000, which has now been refunded. the same period Utilita had overcharged
This includes around 6,600 around 33,000 electricity customers by
prepayment customers, who were more than £105,000 above the amount
collectively overcharged around £22,700 they should have been paying as part
above the prepayment price cap. of their advertised tariff (though still
Around a further 33,000 customers below the prepayment price cap).
were charged about £105,000 more As well as refunding all affected
than they should have paid for their customers in full, Utilita has agreed a
advertised tariff. redress package with Ofgem.
As well as refunding the money that Bill Bullen, CEO of Utilita, said: “I
was overcharged, Utilita has agreed would like to apologise unreservedly
it will pay a redress package which THE ENERGY SUPPLIER HAS to all customers who were temporarily
includes goodwill payments to affected AGREED TO REDRESS THE ERROR out of pocket. I am sorry that we did
customers who are still with the firm, not issue prompt refunds during the
payments to customers who missed same thing happening again. period in question.
out on the Warm Home Discount, Utilita originally self-reported to “We know we can always improve
and a £45,000 payment into Ofgem’s the energy regulator Ofgem that it had and will always take on board criticism
voluntary redress fund. Utilita says it mistakenly overcharged prepayment of any legitimate failings. Ofgem made
will write to customers who are set to customers between May and it clear that the overcollection was
receive extra compensation. September 2019. caused by our failure to carry out an
Ofgem says it won’t be taking any Ofgem then carried out an investigation administrative process that corrected the
further action against Utilita because and found that Utilita had overcharged temporary overcollection. I can reassure
of the steps it has taken to report the around 2,000 gas prepayment customers customers that the issue was not with
issue, offer redress to those affected by a total of £14,000 above the level of the tariff itself, which was confirmed to
and put measures in place to stop the the prepayment price cap. It also found be in accordance with the cap.”

HYDROGEN DISTRIBUTION POSSIBLE VIA EXISTING GAS NETWORKS, SAYS STUDY

collaboratively to develop a hydrogen pure hydrogen, hydrogen/natural gas
solution to provide decarbonised energy blends or natural gas to meet demand in
for heat, transport, industry and power industry, heating, transport and green
generation and helping the UK meet its power generation, depending on the
target to be net zero carbon by 2050. customer’s readiness to adopt hydrogen.
Blending hydrogen into the existing Commenting on the study, Rob
natural gas pipeline network to Phillips, Energy Sector Director,
BLENDING HYDROGEN IS SEEN relatively low concentrations has Costain, said, “Achieving near 100
AS A LOW RISK OPTION
already been proposed as a means per cent decarbonisation of the
A FEASIBILITY STUDY contributing of transporting hydrogen without gas grid will be an essential step in
to ongoing assessments looking at the significantly increasing the risks meeting the UK’s commitment to
use of existing UK gas transmission associated with utilisation of the gas net zero greenhouse gas emissions
and distribution networks to transport blend in end-use devices, overall public by 2050 and is something Costain is
hydrogen has been released by smart safety, or the durability and integrity of committed to driving forward as part
infrastructure solutions company Costain, the existing natural gas pipeline. of our climate change action plan.”
in collaboration with gas networks. Deblending could provide a means “Our expertise in deblending offers
H2 View reports that the project to transition from a 20 per cent to a 100 yet another low carbon solution that
is the first to bring together all the per cent hydrogen network, providing will be key to minimising the cost of
gas distribution networks, working customers with the options for either decarbonising energy infrastructure.”

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19/11/2020 16:31
News.indd 4
News.indd 4 19/11/2020 16:31