Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 21ST - 27TH FEBRUARY 2020 | 17 From May, energy customers who suffer delayed or mistaken switches will automatically receive £30 compensation from their supplier, Ofgem has confirmed. Following a consultation last September, the energy regulator announced earlier this month that the payment will also apply to customers who do not receive their final bill within six weeks. ENERGY Customers to get automatic compensation for switch errors Ofgem said the new require- ments should serve as a "wake- up call for suppliers to cut out problems for customers and get switching right first time". From 1 May, customers whose switch is not completed within 15 working days or are switched to a supplier by mistake will receive the compensation pay- ment from the new supplier. The old supplier must pay out if it fails to issue a final bill within six weeks of a correct switch. Suppliers have been required since May 2019 to make compen- sation payments to customers if they fail to promptly correct an erroneous switch or return their credit balance within 15 days of a final bill being issued. Under the new rules, cus- tomers will receive £30 in the event of any erroneous transfer, This week SES flags up cost concerns to regulator Water company accepts final determination but raises concerns over cost gap and drops in bills SES Water has accepted its final determination from Ofwat but has highlighted concerns to the regulator regarding the gap in its costs and the required reduc- tions in bills. The company, which wrote its business plan for 2020/25 aŠer extensive customer research, emphasised the view that its customers want it to invest to ensure long-term resil- ience. This echoed the comments of Wessex Water when accepting its final determination earlier this month. Recently appointed chief executive Ian Cain said: "Delivering our revised plan – the most ambitious in our history – will not be without its challenges, largely due to the remaining cost gap and the reduction in allowed revenue from customer bills. "We have highlighted this concern to Ofwat, as well as the need to look at the alternative solutions available to ensure we are able to adequately deliver our customer service activities going forwards. "We have also emphasised the view, shared by our customer scrutiny panel, that our customers want us to invest to ensure we can continue to supply a resilient supply of high-quality water for the long term, rather than further reduce the bill for what they already con- sider a good value, essential service." The final determination set stretching targets of a 15 per cent bill reduction, compared with SES's proposal of 7.1 per cent. Ofwat allowed SES £254.6 million of whole- sale total expenditure – £12.7 million lower than the company's position, but up £29.8 million on the draŠ determination. The company's final allowed revenue was £301.5 million, leaving a shortfall from its proposal of £313.1 million. RW ENERGY UKPN granted smart meter data access Ofgem has approved a request by UK Power Networks (UKPN) to collect and process half- hourly consumption data from domestic smart meters. The company will be allowed to retrieve monthly batches of information from the Data Com- munications Company. Although it will initially be attributable to individual supply points, the data will be immedi- ately aggregated by UKPN once handed over. It will be held for a period of seven years before being deleted. The request was detailed in a data privacy plan submitted by the firm in December, which said the information will be used to generate load profiles for sub- stations, feeders and sections of feeders. UKPN said this will give it greater visibility over when and where energy is used, especially on the low-voltage network, and enable it to make more informed decisions regarding network planning, asset management and new connections. WATER Londoners must stop seeing water as infinitely available Londoners must stop seeing water as an "infinitely avail- able resource" as population growth, ageing infrastructure and declining rainfall make the capital increasingly vulnerable to drought. Alex Nickson, water resources manager at Thames Water, said low prices and frequent wet weather have cre- ated the false impression among customers that supplies are plentiful. He was commenting on the publication of the first London City Resilience Strategy, which features Thames Water as a partner on two actions. The plan was unveiled by the Mayor of London's office as part of the global 100 Resilient Cities Project to highlight "new threats to the city's safety and stability, including the impact of climate change and extreme weather events that lead to flooding and drought". Nickson said water efficiency messages are not at the forefront of most customers' minds. "It's a product that initially falls from the sky," he said. "A lot of people think it just magi- cally arrives at the tap in the high quality that it does, and magically goes away again. "We've not had a serious drought since 1976 and there's no recent memory of the con- cept of lack of water. Together with the low price, this means it just isn't in most people's minds." Nickson said customers should reasonably expect high levels of service in all but "the most extreme conditions", but added that the downside is "people assume it is an infinitely available resource". Cain: revised plan presents challenges regardless of how quickly it is corrected. They can also receive multiple payments for multiple failures. Customers have to date received more than £700,000 in compensation payments from suppliers. Of these, 27 per cent have been for mistaken switches, while the majority (73 per cent) have been for late credit balance refunds. Customers

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