DECC looks to beef up Ofgem powers of redress

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued a consultation on Tuesday 10 April on its proposals to give the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) greater powers to force energy companies to compensate customers if suppliers breach their regulatory obligations. The government believed that if individual consumers have suffered a direct loss as a result of a regulatory breach the ideal remedy should be compensation. The government is also proposing to allow Ofgem to be able to order redress not only for domestic customers but businesses, generators and other suppliers as well. Ofgem currently negotiates with suppliers to obtain compensation for consumers, but there is no obligation on the suppliers to provide redress and no formal mechanism by which the regulator can make them do so. DECC is consulting on whether to give Ofgem this power. Responses are invited by 2 July.
DECC