Small business compensated for economic loss

The Distributor informed a customer, a small business owner, about a planned outage for network maintenance. The customer would not be able to operate their business during the outage and closed for the day. The planned outage was cancelled, but the customer was not informed. The customer complained to the Distributor about not receiving notice about the cancelled outage and made a claim for their losses for closing the business. The Distributor identified that a systems issue meant notifications about the cancelled outage were not sent out but denied the claim. The customer complained to the Energy and Water Ombudsman.

The Energy and Water Ombudsman’s investigation considered the regulations and codes that applied to the Distributor as well as good industry practice. The Energy and Water Ombudsman found that the Distributor did not have a legal obligation to notify customers where a planned outage was cancelled. However, the Energy and Water Ombudsman found that the fault in the Distributor’s system which prevented the cancellation notification being sent was known by the Distributor for some time and the cancellation of the outage occurred several days before the outage date.

As a result of the Energy and Water Ombudsman’s investigation, considering the circumstances of the case, the Distributor agreed to compensate the customer for their losses for closing the business for the day.