Eon has been hit with a £2 million fine and faces the prospect of another multimillion pound penalty if it does not rollout 7,000 advanced power meters to business within 12 months.
Regulator Ofgem announced the action today following an investigation. The money will go to the Carbon Trust, along with a further £5 million that Eon has agreed to pay as redress. If it does not complete the advanced meter rollout by November 2016, it faces a total liability of £14 million.
A 2009 licence obligation required suppliers to medium sized businesses to install advanced meters by 2014. Eon is one of the major suppliers that missed the deadline by some margin, so Ofgem imposed the fine and redress.
British Gas and Npower are also under investigation.
“It’s unacceptable that E.ON failed to roll out advanced meters to these business customers on time,” said Anthony Pygram, Ofgem senior partner with responsibility for enforcement. “Customers have lost out on receiving better information about their energy consumption and the opportunity to control costs. Unless E.ON improves their poor record, they will have to pay out even more and may face a sales ban.
“The roll-out of advanced meters has the potential to transform the energy market. We expect all suppliers to learn the lessons from this ahead of the domestic smart-meter roll-out, in particular the need to start the process in good time and ensure senior managers are committed to delivering on time.”
Ofgem said the Carbon Trust would use the money to fund delivery of energy saving audits, energy savings advice, and installation of energy efficiency measures for SMEs.
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