Non-domestic energy supplier Opus Energy has agreed to pay over £7 million in refunds, redress and goodwill payments for overcharging thousands of business customers.
A routine audit noted that 87,825 business customers had been overcharged over a two decade period, due to being placed on the wrong tariff or having billing periods duplicated. Opus Energy voluntarily reported itself to the UK energy regulator following its discovery of the errors.
Although most customers were overcharged by relatively small amounts, with 93% being overcharged by less than £50 in total, one customer, who has since received a refund, overpaid £102,000. While the error did lead to some customers being undercharged, Opus Energy has opted not to recover money from those who had been undercharged as a gesture of goodwill.
Current Opus Energy customers have already had refunds applied to their accounts, and those who have since left the supplier will be contacted by the company if they are owed £2.50 or more. Refunds of less than £2.50, as well as any unclaimed refunds, will be paid to Ofgem’s Energy Redress Fund, which supports energy consumers in financial hardship.
In total, Opus Energy will pay £5.5 million in refunds to impacted customers, with an additional £1.56 million to be paid in goodwill and redress payments. Ofgem notes that Opus Energy has cooperated fully with Ofgem’s compliance engagement and has taken steps to address the failings.
Jacqui Gehrmann, deputy director of retail compliance at Ofgem, said: “All energy consumers should be able to trust their supplier to provide accurate bills and charge them only what they owe.
“While things can go wrong, we expect suppliers to identify issues quickly. So, it’s concerning that these billing issues weren’t spotted sooner. We’ve worked closely with Opus Energy in recent months to ensure the issues are rectified, and that customers affected are refunded and compensated swiftly.”
Ofgem cracks down
Opus Energy is far from the only firm that has faced consequences from Ofgem as a result of various failings.
In September 2024, OVO Energy, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, agreed to pay £2.37 million after numerous failures in its customer complaints processes were identified. Of this, £378,512 will be paid to customers directly impacted by the supplier’s poor complaints handling, with the severity of OVO’s failings necessitating an additional £2 million payment to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme.
