More than 94,000 prepaid meters to be installed in Britain by 2022 | – #prepaid #meters #installed #Britain
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – More than 94,000 prepayment meters were installed in British homes in 2022 using orders and without customer consent, the government said on Monday, with British Gas, Scottish Power and OVO Energy accounting for 70% of them. does. .
In February, UK energy regulator Ofgem banned pre-payment meters in people’s homes from all energy suppliers mandatory asked to stop its installation and launched an urgent investigation into such practices.
Primary payment counters to customers gas and electricity allows you to pay the energy bill on a payment basis.
However, some suppliers are breaking into the homes of customers behind on their bills to install prepayment meters. court have received the warrant, that is, if they do not pay, their heat can be cut off.
Unprecedented increases in energy prices have left many households with significant energy costs and debt.
British Gas, Scottish Power and OVO Energy installed 66,187 prepayment meters last year, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). mandatory they installed it.
Scottish Power was the worst offender, given its customer base, with more than 24,300 meters of power, BEIS said.
UK Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Today’s figures are up from an average of over 7,500 per month last year mandatory The sight of the installation clearly and horrifyingly shows how widespread the forced installation of prepaid meters has become.”
Shapps urged companies to focus on compensating such customers.
British Gas owner Centrica ( CNA.L ) said it would “only apply for the warrant as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted”. The company said it was a months-long process and “a solution way “He made a lot of efforts to contact and communicate with the customer to find out,” he said.
“In the last six months, we have delivered £2.8 million in support payments to 60,000 customers,” Centrica said.
A spokesman for Scottish Power said: “We will not switch a customer to prepay without prior notice and installing a prepayment meter is always a last resort, only after all other options have been exhausted.”
The company does not currently install pre-paid meters or reimburse those customers for new pre-paid meters unless requested by the customer, the spokesperson added.
OVO Energy did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Editing by Jason Neely and David Goodman
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2023-03-27 18:12:47
Source – reuters
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