Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 November 2022
64. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he can provide assistance to former customers of a company (details supplied) which has left the Irish energy market without refunding their customers their credit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56929/22]
View answerThe Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process is managed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) as part of its responsibility for the regulation of the retail gas and electricity markets as assigned under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 and subsequent legislation.The primary statutory objective of this process is to protect customers and to prevent any further potential impact on customers in the market place in the event that an electricity or gas supplier exits the market and ensure that customers’ electricity or gas supply is not interrupted. Under the process, all customers of exiting suppliers are transferred to thestandard tariff of the Supplier of Last Resort for electricity (Electric Ireland) or gas (BGE). I understand that the duration of the SoLR term is determined based on a number of factors including: the volume of customers transferring; the requirement of SoLR to purchase additional energy in the short-term on the wholesale market; and the allowance of adequate time to facilitate the registering of customers and issuing of bills.
Any credit or debit that was built up between a customer and a supplier willnotbe passed on to the SoLR as unfortunately, the SoLR does not have access to the customer’s old supplier’s billing system and is therefore unable to quantify this.
These debits or credits are a matter between the customer and the exiting supplier, and the exiting supplier may provide a refund. Affected customers can contact the CRU customer care team on customercare@cru.ie or 1800 404 404.
The CRU is accountable directly to the Oireachtas. Furthermore, the CRU has a dedicated email address where Oireachtas members can contact them directly oireachtas@cru.ie.
