David

OFGEM has today published its decision to impose a financial penalty to British Gas Trading.
As many businesses including some of our customers have experienced delays and problems following the British Gas migration to a new system.
Although that period was a challenge for all parties concerned we can testify that BG did everything to sort things out and compensate the customer in full.
Alpine Utilities have previously written to OFGEM that supplier’s systems should be audited. But from today’s press release it’s evident that the authority places the onus of system reliability on the supplier’s testing.
We hope this penalty will signal to all suppliers big and small to bring their house in order and ensure that their system and staff training is are of highest standard to serve all customers correctly and efficiently.

As a responsible broker, Alpine Utilities Ltd reads suppliers T&C’s and advises customers accordingly.
When we find that those T&C’s in our opinion do not comply with OFGEM’s licence conditions we will not hesitate to bring this to their attention as we believe only full compliance can bring the full benefit of the energy market competition.
In response OFGEM wrote:
Thank you for your email.

In our decision to retain the existing non-domestic objections regimes we also announced our programme of enhanced compliance monitoring. As a result, the business consumers team is currently undertaking a major compliance work and the issue below feeds well in our activities.

We will look into it and raise the matter with the supplier where appropriate.

Firstly I would like to express my shock and horror as well as sadness over the 4th and biggest national tragedy in such a short time.
My heart goes out for the victims and their families.
I wish to extend my condolences to the victims families, friends and relatives.
I wish all the injured ones a speedy and full recovery.
All the many people who lost their homes and belongings should succeed in rebuilding their lives quickly.
I am pleased that the prime minister has taken the obvious step to set up a governmental inquiry into what lessons can be learned to increase the safety of the residents of tower buildings.
Unfortunately this repeats the usual pattern of let the disaster happen first and learn the lesson AFTER.
AFTER the Hillsborough disaster changes to football stadiums were enacted.
AFTER the Robert Maxwell Pension scandal the financial authority put new rules for the security of pensions in place.
AFTER the 2nd hit to kill terror attack barriers were put up to prevent a further such attack.

AFTER the government realised the competition in the energy market is not working the CMA came up with its report and recommendations

The list goes on…
What we need is competent politicians and authorities with a foresight to prevent disasters BEFORE they happen!

The devastating result from Thursday’s elections will undoubtedly effect energy prices.
The drop in the value of the pound ultimately means higher cost in purchasing dollar traded oil and gas.
We can only hope the prime minister will still have a strong negotiating position with the EU to help the UK a cheap and sustainable energy policy.

We are pleased to learn that British Gas is conducting a trial to simplify it’s domestic bills for clearer appearance.
It is encouraging that OFGEM has permitted these trials against the rules of the licence conditions as their spirit is clearly to benefit the consumers and that is what BG is trying to do.
However we would suggest as an alternative to print some omitted information such as the method of calculation of the gas consumption on the back of the bill. This would enhance clarity on the main billing page but still offer the customer the information required without the need to contact customer services or check online.

Following the widely reported cyber-attack on the NHS and other high profile targets around the world it’s important to remember that every single computer connected to e-mail or internet is vulnerable.
Scammers tend to send genuine looking e-mails with “important” attachments which contain dangerous viruses.
While they often pretend to come from your bank, recently fake utility bills have come up on the screen.
Don’t open any attachment unless you are absolutely sure of its origin and you expect and e-mail from the sender.
As for utility bills, compare the senders e-mail with a genuine e-mail you received in the past.
The golden rule is: if in doubt – leave it out!

I question Labors manifesto of creating at least one publicly owned energy supplier in every region.
What are they trying to achieve? Cheaper prices? Do they believe they will be able to undercut the big6 supplier? If yes, that would mean driving most energy suppliers especially smaller ones out of business. This would certainly be detrimental to the competition.
And if they are more expensive than that would be a failure and only leave the tax-payer with paying the deficit.
Better service? Unlikely a government run company should offer a high standard of customer service.

OFGEM has granted Npower a time-limited derogation to allow the Licensee to proceed with the trial to test consumer engagement with its new Statement of Renewal Terms.
Npower has taken feedback from customers, which showed that the current Statement of Renewal Terms for domestic customers based on the prescription by the SLCs is too long, contains too much information and is difficult for customers to understand.

We are pleased to see a supplier taking the initiative to make their terms easier to understand by the customers. However we would like to see their commitment to plain English information being extended to the small print for both domestic and commercial customers.

Because of the length and complexity of supplier’s T&C’s, Alpine Utilities, often sends those to customers with our highlights to make it easier for our clients to pick up the most relevant points. This is yet another example of the quality of customer service Alpine Utilities clients can expect.

What’s happening?

The gas industry is going through a period of change during 23 May and 06 June 2017. This change affects all gas suppliers where a large IT upgrade is taking place across the entire gas industry. This will prevent any registration during this time. As a result of this, customers may experience a slight delay to the switching journey.

We wanted to give you an update on where the project is and what suppliers are planning to do in the weeks leading up to the switchover. But first some background info to help:

Background
• The national Gas registration system is being replaced (Gas only).
• This will impact all Suppliers and therefore our partners. This is right across the Industry – B2B & Domestic.
• It is going to be a SAP Implementation – the biggest in Europe.

What Next?
• The implementation date is confirmed as 01 June 2017.
• A number of so called non-effective days are required to facilitate ‘cutover’ to this new system. These non-effective days will be running from 23 to 31 May 2017. During this time, no communication can take place with Xoserve or the Independent Gas Transporters (iGTs); this is to enable critical activities such as data migration and transition to the new systems to take place.
• This non-effective period will impact all processes which interact with Xoserve and the iGTs.
• Ofgem have agreed that the 21 day switching rule will not apply (for gas switches) during this period.
• The impact to our customers should be minimal.
• If you have any customers that require registering within the minimum timescales there will be a delay, as this will impact the number of days it will take to complete the switch.
• Future new contract supply start dates (e.g. 01 July, 01 August) and renewals will be unaffected The first business as usual day after cutover is 06 June 2017

District Heating is where households no longer use their own individual heating boiler but get hot water for their heating from waste heat generated by a mini-power station (CHP) or a recycling plant or factory. The heat is being transported through underground pipes and the scheme is meant to cut carbon as well as cost to the users.
But consumers complaint of billing inaccuracies, outages and long-term contracts being unable to change supplier.

As we have seen from the de-regulation of utilities and railways, it takes years or even decades for a new industry to function satisfactorily. It is therefore absolutely vital that the government takes the initiative as soon as new schemes as these being rolled out, to put in place robust regulation and to set up a powerful arbitration procedure to protect customers.