Opus Energy to pay £7 million for overcharging business customers

Press release
Publication date
Industry sector
Generation and Wholesale Market
Supply and Retail Market

Opus Energy has agreed to pay more than £7 million in refunds, redress and goodwill payments after identifying it overcharged almost 88,000 non-domestic customers between 2003 and 2023.

The non-domestic supplier had two faults in its billing system, meaning customers were temporarily on the wrong tariff or their billing periods were incorrectly duplicated. The faults were initially identified during an audit, after which Opus Energy voluntarily reported itself to the regulator.   

These two faults led to 87,825 customers being overcharged over a 20-year period. While 93% of accounts were overcharged by less than £50 in total, one customer, who has since been refunded, overpaid £102,000.

Opus Energy has since resolved the technical faults and will pay £5.5 million in refunds to affected customers. An additional £1.56 million will be paid in goodwill and redress payments. The supplier has committed not to recover amounts from those customers who were undercharged as a result of the system faults. 

It has identified all affected accounts and has processed refunds automatically for current customers. Former customers will be contacted to receive refunds where the refund due is £2.50 or greater. Any unclaimed refunds and refunds below £2.50 will be paid to the Energy Redress Fund. Accounts still supplied by Opus Energy have already been refunded. 

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.

“Many businesses have struggled with the high cost of energy in recent years. Any instance of a customer overpaying, no matter how small, is unacceptable. 

“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.”

While the error is a serious matter, the regulator has taken into account that Opus Energy has cooperated fully with Ofgem’s compliance engagement and has taken steps to address the failings. Had the company not engaged proactively and resolved the issues quickly, the redress package sought would have been higher.  

Notes to editor

Energy companies regulated by Ofgem that breach their licence conditions may be asked to pay a sum of money to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme to remedy any harm caused to consumers.

The Energy Redress Fund provides money to charities to deliver energy related projects that support energy consumers in vulnerable situations. It also helps to deliver benefits to consumers who were negatively impacted by the specific issue that triggered the redress payment. 

Ofgem’s new consumer standards framework can be found on our website. 

On licensees  

  • SLC 4A requires licensees to maintain robust internal capability, systems and processes to enable them to efficiently and effectively serve each of its customers, efficiently and effectively identify likely risks of consumer harm and to mitigate such risks and comply relevant legislative and regulatory obligations
  • SLC 21B requires that the supplier takes all reasonable steps to reflect the meter reading in the next bill or statement of account sent to the customer 
  • SLC 0A requires that suppliers must ensure that each non-domestic consumer is treated fairly
  • all redress payments from regulated person are payable to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme. Since 2017 the Energy Saving Trust has been appointed by Ofgem to operate the scheme on Ofgem’s behalf