Challenger energy supplier Bulb has agreed to pay £1.76 million after failures which impacted 61,000 customers between 2017 and this year.
Energy market regulator Ofgem found that around 3,800 households were blocked from switching to Bulb from a different supplier, causing them to miss out on savings.
The affected households are on Restricted Meter Infrastructure (RMI), where there is more than one meter at a property. Bulb did not submit the correct number of meters at the property to the supplier the consumer wanted to switch from, meaning the switch could not go ahead
The green supplier has agreed to pay £155,500 in compensation to the customers affected by this failure.
11,4000 RMI customers were wrongly charged multiple standing charges, being overcharged £699,000 in total. Bulb has refunded the affected customers and offered them goodwill payments totalling £675,000.
Additionally, a data error in Bulb’s systems meant 46,500 of its vulnerable customers were erroneously removed from their network operators’ Priority Service Register between March 2019 and January 2020. Due to the error, customers missed out on essential priority services, including being given advanced notice of planned power outages.
Bulb self-reported this issue to Ofgem in February and has now paid a total of £70,000 to the 933 customers who were wrongly removed from the register and suffered a power outage.
For the failures, Bulb has also agreed to pay £157,350 into the voluntary redress fund, which supports customers in vulnerable circumstances.
Ofgem said Bulb had insufficient processes to prevent non-compliance, which led to multiple failures.
Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said: “Bulb overcharged some customers, and risked leaving vulnerable customers without access to essential network services when they failed to comply with Ofgem’s rules.
“Our rules are designed to protect consumers, and suppliers must make sure they have the processes in place to comply with them if they are going to give their customers good service.”
Bulb stated it had improved its governance and processes. A spokesperson for the supplier said: “We recently fixed some issues which affected some of our members and potential members. At Bulb, we pride ourselves on the quality of our operations and technology, but we know there will always be ways we can keep improving.
“That’s why we’ve strengthened the Bulb team, boosted training, and put in place even more rigorous checks and verification processes.”
Ofgem said it has closed the compliance engagement with Bulb without taking enforcement action because the supplier cooperated with the investigation, paid redress and took steps to correct its failings.
Bulb is one of a handful of fast-growing medium-sized suppliers, serving 1.6 million households. It supplies 100% renewable electricity and “carbon neutral” gas, with a percentage of green gas and the rest offset with carbon reduction projects around the world.
