Utility Week

Customers 22 | 1ST - 7TH MARCH 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Heat Trust is aiming to protect thousands more customers who receive heat through the district heating sector by extending its eligibility requirements. The customer protection scheme says more people will be able to access free, independ- ent complaint resolution and minimum customer service standards. To date, heat network suppli- ENERGY Heat Trust to protect more customers with eligibility extension ers have been required to have a heat energy supply agreement in place with each customer before being eligible to register. The change will enable exist- ing heat network suppliers that do not have such an agreement to register with Heat Trust if they have a customer charter or equivalent. Bindi Patel, head of scheme at Heat Trust, said more than 37,000 customers were already bene• ting from being on heat networks registered with the trust and thousands more could now have the same protection as a result of the change. She said: "The change recognises that many heat network suppliers, particularly housing authorities and local authorities, o€ en capture heat- ing and hot water provision in This week Solarplicity given ban on new customers Ban will remain in place for three months unless the supplier improves service 'signifi cantly' Small energy supplier Solarpli- city has been banned by Ofgem from taking on new customers for up to three months until it resolves customer service issues. The regulator has warned that if the company fails to improve it could result in the revocation of its supplier licence. Ofgem has issued a provi- sional order to Solarplicity, which also prevents the supplier from increasing direct debits for "vulnerable customers". Concerns have been raised about the company's "poor" switching process and customer service. Solar- plicity's performance has not been up to the required standard for "a number of months," according to Ofgem. The ban will remain in place for three months unless Solarplicity improves "signi• cantly". Ofgem expects Solarplicity to improve customer contact channels and ensure they are managed and main- tained, with queries and issues being resolved in a timely manner. It has also instructed the company to sort out its switching process, ensure customers receive their renewal notice promptly, identify vulnerable customers and review customer accounts – particularly for those in debt. If Solarplicity fails to make improvements within three months, Ofgem can con• rm the provisional order to extend the ban. Between March 2018 and September 2018, there was an "unacceptably high" proportion of calls abandoned and unacceptably long call waiting times, Ofgem said. A spokesperson for Solarplicity said: "Ofgem's decision, which was made on old historical data, disregards the vast improvements that we have made to our customer service." KP ENERGY Prices hiked by Co- op Energy and Ebico Co-op Energy and Ebico have announced price rises following Ofgem's decision to increase its cap on default tari' s by £117. According to Uswitch.com, the typical energy bill for the 60,000 customers on Co-op's standard variable tari' (SVT) will jump by 10 per cent. The change will also a' ect customers of the brands GB Energy Supply and Flow Energy, both of which are owned by Co-op Energy. A spokesman for the com- pany said: "Ofgem announced it was raising the level of the price cap because of the increasing costs faced by energy suppliers. "As the UK's largest member- owned energy supplier, we have a responsibility to run a sustain- able, long-term business, which includes ensuring our prices reœ ect our operating costs." Customers on Ebico's SVT are facing an even larger increase from 4 April. Uswitch said the typical annual bill will rise by £169 – or 16 per cent – to £1,227. Its website said: "At Ebico we are continually working to reduce costs on behalf of our customers. As a result we are pleased to announce that our energy plans will be priced below the new price cap levels." Ebico has also announced increases to its Prepay and Evergreen tari' s from 1 April and 4 April respectively. All the big six energy suppli- ers have raised their SVTs in line with Ofgem's revised price cap on default tari' s of £1,254, which will come into e' ect on 1 April. ENERGY ASA rules 'Energy Watchdog' misleads The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled "Energy Watchdog Ltd" – a Merseyside-based heating systems business – must not "claim or imply" it is a regulator or consumer champion for the energy industry. A complaint was submitted to the ASA about Energy Watch- dog's website, seen on 3¤August last year, which featured a logo including the text "Energy Watchdog" at the top of each web page. The ASA investigated three issues raised by the complain- ant, which also challenged whether the ad "misleadingly implied" hot water would be free because there was a cost to pur- chase a "PV hot water system" and the savings claims made by the website. The ASA ruling published on 20¤February said: "We consid- ered that… consumers would understand the name 'Energy Watchdog' to mean that the company was either a form of regulator, or that it was a con- sumer champion working within the energy sector. "Because Energy Watchdog was in fact a commercial busi- ness that sold heating systems, we concluded that the ad was misleading." 'Unacceptably high': number of calls abandoned tenancy or leasehold agreements as opposed to a speci• c heat energy supply agreement. "By opening up eligibility to these operators who can demonstrate they have clear commitments to speci• c service standards and terms and condi- tions in place, we are able to o' er Heat Trust bene• ts to thou- sands more customers on heat networks across the UK."

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