News

CUSTOMERS with prepayment electricity meters are better off in Guernsey than in the UK because they pay the same tariffs as other local households.

A report by UK watchdog Energywatch today accused energy suppliers of penalising the poor by excluding prepayment customers from the best tariff deals. It estimated that on average this amounted to an additional £195 a year for gas and electricity.

However Guernsey Electricity has confirmed that its policy is to treat all customers equally, and the same tariffs apply irrespective of the method of payment.

UK energy providers said that one of the reasons prepayment customers were treated differently was the additional cost they incurred for providing the necessary metering equipment.

Guernsey Electricity managing director Ian Watson said the same was true locally, however the company’s policy was to absorb the additional costs.

‘In the UK prepayment meter customers often pay more for electricity. In our view this is a less equitable arrangement than we have here. The cost per unit is entirely dependent on what tariff the customer is on, not their method of payment, and key meter customers have the same choice of tariffs as all other households’, he said