​Energy firm owes Lewis householder over £4,000

John Norgrove, who lives in Mangersta, Uig, noticed a year ago that the payments of around £1400 a year had dried up after the retail wing of SSE, his previous electricity supplier, was taken over by Ovo, which thereby became the third biggest energy retailer in the UK.

Under the scheme, which is funded through the energy regulator Ofgem, payments are made by electricity retailers to customers who invested in solar panels, compensating them for surplus power generated which is fed into the grid.

Correspondence with Ovo and frequent efforts to contact them by phone failed to produce results for Mr Norgrove and he eventually took the case to Ombudsman-Services which is appointed by Ofgem, the industry regulator, to resolve disputes between the companies and customers.

The complaint was fully upheld and the Ombudsman’s finding said they would be asking Ovo “to make all reasonable efforts” to ensure Mr Norgrove received his FIT payments dating back to December 2019.

Italso called on Ovo to provide “a written apology and to apply a credit of £150 to your account as a gesture of goodwill”.

However, Mr Norgrove has continued to hear nothing from Ovo and no payment has been made, with over £4000 outstanding.

Online research confirms that the same problem has been encountered by a significant number of other Ovo customers around Britain.

In response to a case sent to the Guardian newspaper last October, their consumer affairs correspondent commented that “your letter is one of several I have received about delayed Ovo FIT payments”.

Payment was received (along with a case of wine) only after the company’s managing director had been personally contacted.

In response to Gazette inquiries, both Ovo and the Energy Ombudsman said that they would look into Mr Norgrove’s case.

Their responses were awaited as we went to press.

The Gazette would be very interested to hear of other similar cases.