UK Energy Regulator to Speed Up Payments to Suppliers of Last Resort

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

U.K. energy regulator Ofgem said Wednesday that it intends to proceed with its planned temporary changes to the Supplier of Last Resort system.

In October, Ofgem proposed to sped up the process for these suppliers to claim any additional costs that they may incur as a result of taking new customers over.

Specifically, the regulator proposed to consider more than a single claim per supplier of last resort, and to start payments from April 2022 providing claims are made, decided upon and received prior to the end of 2021.

"Having considered all the responses and in light of the broad level of support we received, and our continued view that we need to make the temporary changes we set out in our letter to maintain the SoLR process and protect consumers through the current extreme market conditions, we intend to proceed with our proposal," Ofgem said Wednesday in a letter to stakeholders.

The scale of costs that firms face in supplying new customers under current market conditions is such that speeding up payments will help support the Supplier of Last Resort process and secure energy supply for customers of failed companies, Ofgem had said in October.

Since August, 25 U.K. energy retailers have gone out of business as a result of soaring wholesale prices. Their customers have been transferred by Ofgem to suppliers of last resort such as Scottish Power, British Gas, Shell Energy, E.ON Next, EDF and Octopus Energy.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at [e-mail]; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2021 08:55 ET (13:55 GMT)

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