Good Energy has paid over £150,000 in compensation and redress after failing to provide final bills and refund credit balances to prepayment meter customers.
Energy regulator, Ofgem, found that an error in Good Energy’s billing system affected 2,284 prepayment meter customer accounts between 2014 and October 2023. It meantprepayment customers who transferred to another supplier or terminated their contract did not receive final bills within six weeks, as required under Ofgem’s rules.
As a result of the failures, and in recognition of the impact these issues may have had on prepayment meter customers, many of which may have faced financial difficulty, Good Energy has agreed to pay a total of £150,067. The average sum paid per affected customer was £66.
This includes £55,281 in customer compensation and refunds, and a further £94,786 to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund (EIVRS), which funds projects and schemes to support energy consumers, particularly those in vulnerable situations. Of this, £64,678 was unclaimed customer compensation.
The issue was identified after E.ON Next self-reported the same error to Ofgem last year. A detailed investigation followed, and Good Energy has now updated its systems to rectify the error.
Nigel Pocklington, chief executive, Good Energy, said: “We were dismayed to find the billing system issue causing these prepayment customers to have not received their final statements and we deeply apologise to all those affected.
“As soon as the issue was identified we put in place a manual process to ensure it did not continue and have since made changes to make sure it does not happen again. We have also made every effort to provide due compensation to affected customers. This includes goodwill sums in excess of their potential credit balance plus interest, and the General Standards of Performance payments all customers who do not receive final statements in time.”