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UTILITY Week 16th January 2015

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UTILITY WEEK | 16Th - 22nd JanUarY 2015 | 27 Customers This week Oil price fall benefits business customers Politicians demand that consumers benefit from oil savings, as business customers see tariffs fall Business energy customers are already benefiting from falling wholesale energy prices, suppli- ers have told Utility Week. Business energy supplier BES Utilities said in a statement last week that it would cut prices by 7 per cent in April in response to historic lows in the oil market. Smartest Energy, GDF Suez and Haven Power told Utility Week their flexible market tracker tariffs meant custom- ers would benefit from falling wholesale costs through- out their contracts. BES Utilities' announcement of a price cut follows calls by chancellor George Osborne, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing for energy companies to pass on savings accrued by consid- erable falls in oil prices to five-and-a-half year lows. Osborne warned that the Treasury may investigate if the savings were not passed on. However, Smartest Energy head of regulatory affairs Colin Prestwich said in a statement that competition between suppliers should drive price-setting, and warned that political intervention was "unhelpful". "We are concerned by George Osborne's comments. There is already a CMA investigation underway into the industry and we strongly believe that competition is the best way of ensuring the best deal for consumers, so fur- ther intervention would be unhelpful," Prestwich said. Haven Power chief executive Peter Bennell echoed his calls to allow a competitive market model to dictate company decisions. LD WaTEr NI Water dispute leaves thousands off supply Industrial action over a pensions dispute le thousands of North- ern Ireland Water (NI Water) customers without a mains water supply. Union members are refusing to work out-of-hours or do overtime, delaying the repair of a fault at the Enniskillen treatment plant that has le 10,000 custom- ers in the Fermanagh and Tyrone areas without mains supply. The company said the delay was caused by the company having "very limited resources" because of the ongoing indus- trial action over pensions. NI Water provided "alterna- tive water supplies" to those who were cut off but it said water supplies were restored to all customers by midday on Tuesday (13 January). EnErgY Ecotricity chalks up 150,000 customers Independent green energy supplier Ecotricity has reached 150,000 customers, up from 85,000 at the end of 2013. The company supplies renewable-only electricity and said it was benefiting from poor customer satisfaction levels in the rest of the energy industry and faster switching times. Two million customers switched away from the big six in the past 12 months. Ecotricity topped the 2014 Which? energy customer satis- faction survey and received the lowest number of complaints in the sector last year, at 0.86 com- plaints per 1,000 customers. Ecotricity said it had the most stable prices in the industry because it generated 40 per cent of its own electricity and was not affected by fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels. For the past two years it has frozen prices. Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: "It's been another watershed year for the industry; 2014 was a year when millions of people simply said enough is enough and looked for an alternative to the big six." EnErgY Data problems limit Hive control British Gas played down fears over its flagship partnership with smart thermostat provider Hive this week, saying a soware fault that required a system update had been limited to 40 customers. The fault resulted from the way some customers' internet service providers were manag- ing Hive's data, preventing them from controlling their heating remotely. Those affected were still able to use their on-wall thermostat. Some business tariffs linked to wholesale price I am the customer Lewis Shand Smith "Billing issues are the number one irritant" As we start 2015, it's fair to say we look back on a year of turbulence for the energy indus- try; filled with price hikes and market investigations, leading to increased mistrust and cynicism by consumers and the media. This mounting dissatisfaction has resulted in more consumers turning their back on the big six and switching to smaller sup- pliers (although complaints to these suppliers have also risen). We received 44,731 complaints between 1 January and the end tomer service, and more ready to switch supplier as a result. Recent figures show that over the past four years, more than 2 mil- lion households have switched to a small energy supplier. Energy secretary Ed Davey recently said he wants independ- ent energy providers to hold 30 per cent of the market by the end of the decade. It will be inter- esting to see how this plays out. Lewis Shand Smith, chief ombudsman, Ombudsman Services of November 2014 – more than double the number received in the whole of 2013 (17,690). Billing issues are the number one irritant, accounting for 91 per cent of complaints over the year, with July 2014 attract- ing the highest number of complaints ever recorded in a one-month period (4,731). Over the year, customers receiving incorrect bills accounted for 15 per cent of billing-related complaints, while 18 per cent were due to customers not receiving a bill at all. The hike in complaints sug- gests consumers are becoming more aware of their rights, less willing to accept poor cus-

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