Northern Ireland electricity customers would pay for compensation - Utility Regulator
The chief executive of the Utility Regulator has said if Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) pay out the compensation that Stormont politicians have asked for, every electricity customer in Northern Ireland would pay the cost from their bills.
John French brought proposals to deal with compensation for customers affected by storms to Stormont in 2023 via a consultation, but MLAs have not yet acted on this.
Mr French told the BBC’s Nolan Show: "We brought that forward, but the problem is it then becomes a legislative issue, so we need the Department to come and change the legislation".
Speaking on Wednesday, he said around 25% of the public would receive a payment, but would also have to fund the payouts.
He also revealed the money would not come from NIE’s profits, as had been suggested by some MLAs. The assembly could legislate to have a different system, but Mr French has warned of risks to a “knee jerk” decision on the matter.
Mr French also said that Economy Minister Conor Murphy has written to the Utility Regulator and NIE to request that the bodies could work with his department to build up a compensation scheme.
DUP MLA Paul Frew said: “In Great Britain, the regulations governing compensation for electricity outages have evolved over time. I think it was 2023, Ofgem, the energy regulator in GB implemented changes to these rules. These adjustments were made following a review of the response to Storm Arwen in 2021.
“I would welcome a review by the Department of Economy in response to this latest storm and how we can learn from it. That would be best practice we could adopt.
“The compensation payment debate becomes somewhat redundant if NIE accept that they should and would pay out in a voluntary basis and that in itself may well inform thinking in the Department of Economy on how we proceed.
“It should be noted however that there are a number of variations in our systems and regulations compared with GB not least the fact that it’s the Utility Regulator of Northern Ireland that regulates price controls on NIE and SONI and not Ofgem, and for example we don’t have a price cap which can inevitably rise prices for consumers or if set wrong can reduce competition by companies going to the wall.”
l See page 8