A handful of energy customers were accidentally sent cheques for trillions of pounds in compensation, due to what was described as a ‘clerical error’ by Northern Powergrid.
Compensation was owed by the firm to tens of thousands of households who had their electricity cut off during Storm Arwen. However, 74 households got a bit of a shock as the compensation figure was accidentally replaced with a meter reading, which is 13 digits long.
The error came to light when customer Gareth Hughes tweeted to thank Northern Powergrid for the compensation, while checking they could afford this generosity.
Mr Hughes had previously received a cheque for £135 after being left without power for three days. He got in touch with the energy company to query the amount, believing he was owed more and in a bizarre quirk, received a compensation figure roughly equal to France’s GDP.
It’s not the first time that Northern Powergrid has faced criticism off the back of Storm Arwen. They were criticised for their sluggish response to restoring power last year and subsequently for taking too long to process compensation claims.
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: "As soon as we identified the clerical error, which was caused by the electricity meter reference number being incorrectly quoted as the payment sum, we ensured all 74 customers' cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed.
"We have been investigating how this error happened and carrying out checks of previous payments.
"All indications are that this was an isolated incident.”
They went on to thank the ‘honest’ customers who informed them about the accident and assure them correct payment would be issued shortly. Whether or not anyone tried to cash the clearly erroneous cheques has not been confirmed.
Storm Arwen arrived on Britain's shores at the end of November, with 98mph winds severely damaging power lines in North East England, leaving 240,000 without electricity. While the majority of these homes were reconnected relatively quickly, some were left in the dark for as long as 12 days.
This resulted in energy regulator Ofgem removing a £700 limit on compensation for households - with the new framework allowing customers to claim £70 for the first 48 hours without power and a further £70 for every 12 hours after that.
