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Eon have just informed brokers & customers that they will be invoicing for Black Start Charges incurred by National Grid that have worked out £117.23m above the forecasted costs.
Customers will be receiving reconciliation invoices to recover much of this extra distribution cost at 0.016p per kWh for all electricity used between April 16 and March 17. This is just £16 per 100’000kwh
As this is fully within eon’s T&C’s there is little customers can do to avoid this charge.
We have yet to be informed by other suppliers how they will react to these results.

A customer called Alpine Utilities urgently as he received an unexpected high electricity bill for the past 2 years since he moved into the property.
The previous occupier never gave the supplier a final reading and the new tenant could not locate the electricity meter; the suppliers also had no record of its location.
One day an elderly gentleman turned up to take a meter reading and claimed to remember from some years ago the meter may be in the adjacent storage container belonging to a neighbor.
We believe the seller of the property was at fault for not informing the buyer of the meter location.
It should become standard that conveyancing Solicitors will request this info from the seller prior to completion.

Alpine Utilities have recently discovered how a customer of another reputable brokerage is paying over the odds on capacity charges they don’t need. Almost 10 years the developers rated the educational site at 275kVA we have now confirmed it uses no more than 134kVA.

Reducing their availability could save them over £1400 per annum, yet the current broker sends the customer the monthly electricity bill with their logo saying validated but never bothered to check the maximum demand.

Once again Alpine Utilities’ professionalism has been proven to be far ahead of it’s competitors!

We are proud to announce that an established broker firm is now seeking the expertise and  experience of Alpine Utilities. Despite their many years in business the London broker believes that Alpine Utilities have much to offer in back-office utility broker management.

Mr Lande the director of Alpine Utilities Ltd says: ” We are delighted that other industry players recognize our expertise and value our experience!”

If industry experts trust our expertise then certainly consumers are well advised to benefit from the many years experience of Alpine Utilities!

Corona sent today a green e-mail amongst other measures they are introducing paperless billing from September.
While finding your bills online is always useful paperless billing is not necessarily greener billing.
There have been calls in the past to re-introduce paper billing as the environmental footprint of accessing bills online, possibly printing them on a personal printer and the increased use of ICT devices must not be ignored.
Paperless billing is certainly cheaper for the supplier, the environmental benefit has yet to be proven.

Recently our Utility Warehouse internet-phone line stopped working.
During the initial phone call to UW (after getting through to the correct dept.) they analysed that the problem was with their line rather than with my phone.
It took them a few days to resolve the problem at their end but my phone was still not working.
They then asked me to send in the voicebox for testing.
Within hours of receipt the box was tested, reconfigured and posted back to us.
Todays phone bill shows a credit for my postage paid.

It was a pleasure to deal with a utility service that managed to handle an issue swiftly and professionally.

According to Money Saving Expert OFGEM has now ruled that comparison websites are allowed to hide those deals that don’t pay them commission.
While we appreciate that those switching companies must be properly funded, such a ruling can backfire, stifle competition and become a loser for everyone concerned.
Once consumers lose trust in the comparison websites, switching rates will go down and consumer will start paying more than they have to.

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!