British Gas Business to pay £4.5m for missed meter deadline

British Gas Business has been ordered by Ofgem to pay £4.5 million for failing to meet its deadline to supply large business customers through advanced electricity meters by April 2014.

The government’s scheme to roll-out advanced meters to businesses began in 2009, as part of a national project to modernise the energy sector. British Gas Business had five years to fit around 43,000 customers with, and supply electricity through, advanced meters.

However, Ofgem said the supplier “did not take all reasonable steps to fulfil the rollout” as it was legally required to do. Some customers were left without an advanced meter at the end of the rollout period.

Although the company took additional steps in 2013 to install the meters, these were too late to ensure that all eligible customers benefited from advanced meters by the April 2014 deadline. Further, it installed a small number of traditional meters instead of advanced meters.

British Gas Business will pay £4.5 million to the Carbon Trust, to help businesses across Great Britain save energy though audits, advice, and energy efficiency measures.

Since April 2014, the firm has made further progress in rolling out advanced meters to its business customers, in line with its legal obligation. The supplier understands this is a continuing obligation and has agreed to increased monitoring of its progress in installing the outstanding meters.

Ofgem senior partner with responsibility for enforcement, Martin Crouch, said: “British Gas Business failed to meet its mandatory deadline to install advanced meters leaving some larger business customers unable to benefit.

“The supplier has since taken further action to prioritise the rollout, improving its performance.

“This penalty sends out a clear message to the industry that suppliers must meet regulatory deadlines. Smart meters are being rolled out to smaller non-domestic customers and suppliers must learn their lesson ahead of delivering this programme.”