Ovo to pay over £10 million after Ofgem prepayment probe

Energy supplier Ovo has agreed to pay more than 10 million pounds following a regulatory investigation that found its inadequate monitoring of prepayment meter customers exposed vulnerable households to a clear risk of harm. The settlement with regulator Ofgem was announced Wednesday.

The financial package includes a 7 million pound payment to Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund and a 3.4 million pound package of credit and debt relief for some of Ovo’s most vulnerable customers, which the regulator said is in lieu of direct compensation. Separately, Ovo is already paying 1.1 million pounds to customers in the Scottish Highlands and Islands after it was found that some rural households did not have appropriate access to engineer support between January 2022 and April 2024.

Ofgem’s investigation focused on Ovo’s treatment of existing prepayment meter customers between 2018 and 2024. The regulator concluded that the company failed to consistently monitor and accurately record customer interactions, with evidence showing that key checks and safeguards were not always carried out. These failures included inadequate oversight of customers on the priority services register, a list of...