Ofgem weighs in on EDF billing row with famous artist

Both Ofgem and energy secretary Claire Coutinho have intervened following an error which saw one EDF customer billed almost £40,000 for their energy costs.

Turner prize-winning artist Sir Grayson Perry took to X, formerly Twitter, to query the supplier after it reportedly tried to bill him for £39,000.

Hi @edfenergy I’ve been trying to speak to someone to explain how my electricity bill went from £300 a month to £39,000. Your call centre has been no help but you tried to direct debit this amount today from my account

— Grayson Perry (@Alan_Measles) December 18, 2023

Responding to Perry’s post journalist and broadcaster Jon Sopel also claimed he had seen a significant bill increase. He had previously messaged EDF on the social media platform.

Dear @edfenergy
Just had a notification that our monthly standing order is going up from £152 a month to £19,274. Seems a bit steep. Is there a human rather than a bot we can talk to?
Many thanks and merry Christmas
Jon

— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) December 16, 2023

Following this the energy regulator said it had instructed EDF to check and confirm it was not a “wider systemic issue” and urgently report back.

“We have also asked what steps they will take to prevent any future errors of this kind,” it added.

Coutinho has also weighed in on the row. Writing on X, she said: “Yesterday I spoke to Ofgem to get answers on reports of suppliers overcharging customers.

“I welcome their swift action to investigate whether these are isolated cases or a wider issue and will continue to monitor this carefully.”

Utility Week contacted EDF for a comment on the matter and in response a spokesperson said while it cannot discuss the specifics of the cases they “are not related to a wider issue with our billing system and we’ve not made any changes to how we process direct debit changes for customers”.

They added: “Unusual changes to direct debit amounts can sometimes occur when there is an erroneous meter reading recorded on the system.

“We have robust interventions in place to ensure that any large increases in customers’ direct debits are verified through a human check and in almost all such cases, system errors are rectified and prevented, without customers being impacted.”