Utility Week

Customers UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST JUNE 2018 | 19 SSE will pay £1 million to Ofgem's consumer redress fund aer the energy company sent 580,000 pre-payment customers "inaccurate and misleading" information in their annual state- ments between 2014 and 2015. The supplier said it "deeply regrets" the historic issues related to pre-payment meter (PPM) processes, caused by a coding issue. ENERGY SSE to pay £1m for 'inaccurate and misleading' information Ofgem launched an investiga- tion into SSE in November last year aer the supplier reported the issue to the regulator. It found SSE sent out 1.15 million annual statements to 580,000 PPM customers between June 2014 and September 2015. The letters contained "inac- curate" information on the alter- native cheaper tariffs available for customers if they swapped to a credit meter and paying by direct debit. An IT coding error resulted in inaccurate estimates of how much customers could save by switching to alternative tariffs. Some statements overestimated the savings customers could make by changing to a stand- ard credit meter and paying by direct debit, as well as moving to paperless billing. This week Thames pays £120m for leakage failure Ofwat probe reveals board-level lack of control of water company's efforts to tackle leaks Thames Water will return a total of £120 million to customers for failing to tackle leaks. The company has agreed to pay £65 million back to custom- ers on top of £55 million in automatic penalties incurred for not meeting its commitment to customers to cut leaks. The news follows an inves- tigation by Ofwat, which found Thames Water's board did not have "sufficient oversight and control" of the company's leakage performance. Thames has welcomed the findings and apologised to customers. The water company said it is on track to return to its leakage target by 2020. It has committed itself to a fur- ther 15 per cent reduction by 2025 and 50 per cent over the longer term compared with 2016/17 levels. It said it will bring forward the payment of automatic penalties, customers will get a total rebate of approxi- mately £15 over the next two years. Ofwat's investigation found Thames Water breached two of its legal obligations through poor leakage man- agement. It concluded that Thames "underestimated the significance of its underperformance on leakage". Chief executive Rachel Fletcher said: "The measures we've announced illustrate the scale of the company's shortcomings and how seriously we take them." The Consumer Council for Water was disappointed it had taken an intervention from Ofwat for Thames to "finally confront" its poor performance on leakage. Environment secretary Michael Gove welcomed the settlement. He said: "This is exactly the kind of decisive action Ofwat should be taking, and shows an ongoing commitment to ensuring customers receive the service they deserve." KP ENERGY Starks joins Ofgem as executive director Ofgem has appointed Mary Starks as executive director of its con- sumer and markets directorate. She will take the reins from Rob Salter-Church, who has held the position on an interim basis since Rachel Fletcher stepped down as the senior partner for consumers and competition to become the chief executive of Ofwat in January. Starks is currently director of competition and chief econo- mist at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). She has more than two decades' experience in the regulatory and public policy spheres. Before joining the FCA, she was senior director at the Office of Fair Trading. Starks has also worked on energy regulation at the eco- nomic consultancy NERA and began her career as an analyst at the Bank of England. She is a trustee of Working Families, a charity created to help parents, carers and employees find a bet- ter balance between the respon- sibilities of home and work. Salter-Church will continue as interim executive director until Starks takes over in September. He will then move to a perma- nent role as the director for retail systems transformation. Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan said: "I am pleased to announce Mary's appointment. She has a wealth of experience in regulation and public policy and an impressive track record of pro- tecting consumers. I would also like to thank Rob Salter-Church for his excellent leadership of the consumers and markets directo- rate in the interim." Starks said: "I am excited to be joining Ofgem at a time of significant change in the energy sector." WATER Blackpool granted self-supply licence Blackpool Council has been granted a self-supply licence for the water retail market. The licence will allow it to buy water supply and wastewa- ter services directly from United Utilities for its buildings and associated premises. The local authority will also manage its own retail services for more than 120 sites across the borough. The move is estimated to achieve cost savings of up to £194,000 over three years. In the first year, savings are expected to be in the region of £50,000, with the potential for further savings through addi- tional cost and consumption efficiency projects. The council is the fih organisation to be granted such a licence, aer brewer Greene King, hospitality firm Whit- bread, brewery and pub retailer Marston's, and Coca-Cola Euro- pean Partners. All businesses granted self-supply licences so far have entered into partnerships with consultancy Waterscan. Thames has apologised to its customers Ofgem said its investigation found that despite the large number of incorrect statements issued to customers, "only a small proportion" would have acted on the information. SSE failed to "act promptly to put things right", Ofgem said, but the regulator has now closed the case and has decided not to take formal enforcement action against SSE.

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