Distributor provides accurate consumption estimate

A customer noted that there had been a significant increase in their bills due to higher than usual estimates of consumption and queried this with the retailer. They were told that the estimates were based on the average consumption in the area but, as the distributor would be doing an actual meter read shortly, this would enable an adjustment based on the customer’s actual consumption. When the distributor came to conduct the actual read, the meter was found to be faulty and a correct actual read was not possible. The customer therefore continued to be billed on estimated consumption, based on the average consumption patterns in the area. The customer complained to the Energy Ombudsman because they thought this was unfair, as they only used the home during holiday periods and would have lower than average consumption.

An investigation revealed that, although there had been a series of estimated reads over the previous year, there was a history of actual reads from prior periods that showed the customer’s consumption patterns were considerably lower than average. The matter was resolved by the distributor providing the retailer with revised estimates based on the customer’s prior history and the retailer re-issuing reduced bills to the customer.