Below is the latest information I have from the network operator companies on their compensation schemes for those who were without power as a result of Storm Arwen.
Please note - neither company will ask you for your bank details - please do not give your bank details to anyone who tells you they are calling from Scottish Power or Northern Powergrid.
How much might you be entitled to?
You will be entitled to £70 if you were without power for 48hours, and then an extra £70 for every 12 hour period after that.
The network operators - in this case Scottish Power and Northern Powergrid - have agreed to Ofgem's request to voluntarily remove the existing limit of £700 for those payments, as so many people were without power for longer than was accounted for.
This compensation is in addition to reimbursements for expenses you might be able to claim for meals, alternative accommodation and generators.
Both companies are contacting those affected by letter, and sending cheques to prevent fraud.
The network operators do not usually deal directly with customers - ie they do not directly supply you with your electricity and are not the company you have a contract with - therefore in some cases they won't have your full details, and may need extra information from you so they can ascertain who they need to compensate. They will write to the property about this and how you can supply the information.
Again, they will NOT ask for your bank details. Do contact me if you are not sure, I can verify if a communication you have received is genuine or fraudulent.
Scottish Power
In addition to the above compensation, Scottish Power has decided to give customers an additional £150 as a goodwill gesture to apologise for the disruption they experienced. They sent me this handy table which you might find useful:
Scottish Power customers will receive one of two letters, which have now been issued: where they hold the customer’s name/enough details to issue a cheque, they will do so and notify customers. Where they need clarification of the customer’s name before they can issue the cheque, they will ask customers to provide the information to them.
A help line and e-mail has been set up dedicated to dealing with these payments. Scottish Power is asking any customers who might not have received their cheque by 21 December, or have any queries regarding the cheque, to contact them on:
Phone: 0330 10 10 158
Email: [email protected]
They are hoping to make all payments, via cheque, before Christmas. Compensation for hot food purchased during time off supply will be sent quickly as possible and should be with people by late December/early January.
Northern Powergrid
Northern Powergrid have also started to post cheques to affected customers and hope to have the majority paid out before Christmas. That may not be the case for those customers for whom they need more information to be able to issue a cheque.
They are aware there may well be customers who were affected that they may not be aware experienced an outage.
Northern Powergrid has not set a deadline for issuing the cheques, however, if you believe you should be in line to receive compensation and you have not received any communication from Northern Powergrid by 4th January, please contact me, and I will ensure your case is investigated.
Park home residents
I am aware of several residents of park homes who experienced power outages as a result of Storm Arwen, but pay their bills to the park and are concerned the network operator may not know about their situation to issue compensation.
If you think this applies to you - please contact your network operator directly - or you can contact me and I will ensure they receive your details.