healthier, happier and richer

The attitude of the UK’s energy regulator Ofgem could be summed up for most of its existence as ‘whatever the question is, the answer is more competition’. Ofgem has moved on a bit, but  still calls for greater competition, and for more customers to use their market power by switching suppliers. The opposition Labour Party also highlights the advantages of switching supplier.

I’ve worked on UK energy policy for 26 years now. I’ve worked for an energy utility. I agree that greater competition could play a role in meeting the ‘energy trilemma’. (Being a policy wonk, I even know what the trilemma is). I helped launch the UK’s first no premium renewable electricity tariff. And my considered advice to anyone thinking of switching energy suppliers is this: don’t bother – life is too short.

I’ve finally resolved the saga of who supplies my gas which I wrote about in a previous article (http://climateanswers.info/2015/02/18-february-2015-the-nightmare-of-switching-energy-suppliers/), Rather disappointingly, given that I’d like to see the role of the ‘big six’ energy companies reduced, the main cause of the problem was not boring old British Gas but new, innovative Ovo. British Gas’s performance hasn’t been great, just less bad.

This was my second unsuccessful attempt to switch energy supplier. Back in 2008 I was working for RWE npower renewables. I’d been involved (while running Greenpeace UK) with the setting up of npower juice, a renewable tariff launched together with the UK’s first offshore wind farm. So, out of loyalty, I thought I should switch to juice. But npower rejected me on the grounds that my credit rating was not good enough. I was worth employing, but too risky to sell electricity to.

Six years later I had another go at switching. I sent Ovo the meter numbers and readings, for both the gas and electricity, when I signed up with them. They said they’d do the rest. However, they took over the supply not of my flat but of the downstairs flat. I carried on getting bills from Eon and British Gas. Eon’s estimate of electricity used was quite accurate, so I paid the bill. British Gas’ was way over actual gas used – and more than anyone would have used in July and August, which the bill covered. So I queried it, and said that Ovo was my gas supplier (which I thought they were). British Gas didn’t answer my query – they just passed my details onto Allied International Credit, a debt collection agency, who started sending me threatening letters and demanding money not only for the alleged gas used but also for their costs.

I contacted Ovo and asked them to sort if out quickly, to get the bailiffs off my back. They investigated, worked out that they’d made a mistake, so closed down my account and reimbursed me all the money I’d paid them. This was all fine. But unfortunately they failed to inform me that they’d done this. So I went on assuming that they were my gas suppliers and asking them, by email, to sort things out with British Gas. The latest email I got back from them (included in my last post) was polite and trying to be helpful but, I now discover, completely inaccurate. The email was sent on 9 February 2015. Ovo had closed down my account in December 2014.

I discovered this as a result of putting @BritishGas in a tweet I sent about the saga. As I said in my last blog, once I’d send a photo of my gas meter to British Gas and Ovo, I got a helpful email back from British Gas. (No reply from Ovo.) But later the same day I got another letter from Allied International Credit saying that British Gas might come to my property and replace the meter with a prepayment one. That would be fine by me – I rarely use the central heating (not due to climate heroism, but because I don’t feel the cold) and I won’t live there for ever as I’m a tenant. (Landlord might be less happy…). But another threatening letter annoyed me, so I took to Twitter. I got a reply from British Gas immediately, saying ‘this doesn’t look good’ and promising to sort it out. About half an hour later the woman tweeted me a direct message (actually three – even she couldn’t cover all these complications in 140 characters). She suggested I contacted Ovo, which I did. I rang them up – it was a Saturday so it was that or cleaning the kitchen. At least I wasn’t held in long phone queue. Once I’d given my account number, the woman said that my account had been closed down in December. Yet on 9 February 2015 I’d had email from Ovo, called ‘Update from Ovo’ which began “ Having checked the National Databases for both gas and electricity Ovo Energy is listed as the current provider for both supplies for your property”. So the writer had checked the national databases, but apparently not Ovo’s own database.

Every time I contact an energy utility I’m asked to give feedback. So here’s some general feedback. The individuals I’ve dealt with in your companies have all been polite and have tried to be helpful. But your systems are shambolic. Replying to emails is generally a good idea. Contacting people directly before setting debt collectors onto them is always a good idea. Telling customers when you close their accounts is not an afterthought to be done when the important stuff has been finished. Your internal communication systems (assuming you have any systems) do not work; left and right hand seem blissfully unaware of each other’s existence.

In my last blog I said I’d learnt three lessons from my energy switching ‘research’. Anyone trying to change energy supplier must be very patient, willing to learn lots of new acronyms, and have a digital camera. Since then I’ve learnt a fourth: social media is the most effective way to contact energy utilities. Emails r SOOOO C20!!!!

One final point. Prashant and I argue in Repowering communities that local authorities should play a greater role in energy delivery. I still think that. But ever since I had the temerity to ask to pay my council tax by monthly direct debit, the performance of my council has made private energy utilities seem like paragons of efficiency and courtesy. That’s for another blog…