Energy firm pays out £150,000 after major error with customer bills

Good Energy has paid out £150,000 after failing to provide final bills and refund credit balances to prepayment meter customers. It comes following an investigation by .

The regulator found some prepayment customers who switched to another supplier or ended their contract did not receive their final bills within six weeks, as per rules set out by Ofgem.

The billing error is estimated to have affected 2,284 prepayment meter customer accounts between 2014 and October 2023. Good Energy has agreed to pay a total of £150,067 following the investigation. The average sum paid per affected customer was £66.

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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.

Beth Martin, director for consumer protection and competition at Ofgem, said: “At a time when so many households are facing financial difficulty, it’s unacceptable that Good Energy failed to provide refunds of money that was owed to customers, compensation they were due, and final bills they were entitled to.

“Driving up standards for consumers across the board is our top priority, and improving billing accuracy is a key part of this. We also expect suppliers to make sure they have robust systems in place to limit the risk of issues like this happening, and to proactively report problems when they arise."

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.”

It comes after the Ofgem price cap rose to £1,849 a year for the average dual fuel household paying by direct debit. Energy analysts at Cornwall Insight are predicting it could fall to £1,683 in July.

Ofgem will announce its new energy price cap by May 27. This new rate will come into force from July 1 and will run for three months, until August 31.

Despite what its name suggests, the Ofgem price cap does not put a limit on how much you can pay for energy - instead, it sets the maximum unit price you can be charged for gas and electricity, as well as the maximum daily standing charge.