British Gas to pay £4.5m for missing smart meter deadline
Centrica's British Gas has been fined £4.5m by regulator Ofgem after it failed to deliver smart meters to some larger electricity business customers by the April 2014 deadline.
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The energy industry regulator ordered British Gas Business to pay the sum to the Carbon Trust, which will use the funds to help businesses save energy through audits, advice, and energy efficiency measures.
Because larger electricity customers were not fitted with an advance meter by the deadline Ofgem said they had missed out on an improved ability to control energy costs.
British Gas Business is also required to increase its monitoring of the installation of the outstanding meters.
The deadline was set as part of the government's 2009 scheme to provide advanced meters in a bid to modernise the energy sector, with British Gas charged with fitting meters and supplying energy through them to around 43,000 customers.
Ofgem said that the supplier “did not take all reasonable steps to fulfill the roll-out as it was legally required to do”.
While the company took steps in 2013 to install the meters, Ofgem said this was “too late to ensure that all eligible customers benefited from advanced meters by the April 2014 deadline” and it also installed a small number of traditional meters instead.
However Ofgem did say that since April 2014 the company had made further progress in installing the advanced meters.
Martin Crouch, Ofgem senior partner with responsibility for enforcement said: “This penalty sends out a clear message to the industry that suppliers must meet regulatory deadlines. Smart meters are being rolled out to smaller non-domestic customers and suppliers must learn their lesson ahead of delivering this programme.”