Britain’s energy regulatory has threatened to impose financial punishments on network operators – including Scotland’s Big Two – unless they improve their performance on new connections.
OFGEM has warned Britain’s electricity distribution network operators – who include SSE and Scottish Power – that their revenue could be cut following a review of how well they are dealing with new customers that request connections.
Based on provisional information provided to OFGEM the cut in revenue could be up to £13.9 million across all six network operators.
Managing connection requests is an essential part of DNOs’ customer service, especially as the energy system is rapidly becoming smarter and more flexible. New businesses, generators and housing developers are among those that depend on an efficient connections service.
An OFGEM spokesman explained: “Failure to meet minimum expectations can lead to a financial penalty. Following feedback from customers to our consultation in July, our view is that all DNOs may have fallen short of these expectations.
“Many of the failings involve poor communication. For example, some customers struggled to get progress updates on their connection requests or found that information they were provided by a DNO was not detailed enough.
“In other cases the DNO failed to explain the cost of reinforcing its network when making quotations for connections work.”
Ofgem is consulting on its view, giving stakeholders and the DNOs a further opportunity to provide evidence on performance. A final decision on each DNO’s performance and whether they will face revenue penalties will be made by the end of November.”
The consultation document is available here.
22 Aug 2017
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