Select a region
After months of speculation as to how thousands of islanders hit by the gas outage last year would be compensated, Island Energy has finally confirmed that it will be giving its customers a "goodwill" payment... of less than £12.
The outage saw thousands of islanders left unable to cook or take a hot shower – in some cases, for days – and some had to use local sports facilities for washing.
The utility company said the payment is reflective of a single month's standing charge, and will be made in the form of credit to each gas customer’s account, will be applied next month.
Island Energy says that one month’s standing charge for a customer is around £11.56.
The payment relates to an outage on 7 October – when around 4,000 customers found themselves without gas, including cafés and restaurants who claimed to have made significant losses, some amounting to more than £10,000. However, compensation for commercial customers is still yet to be worked out.
It comes little more than a week after the utility company announced that prices would be going up for Jersey customers by 12% this year – 4% more than in Guernsey.
Chief Executive of the Islands Energy Group, Jo Cox, said: “We have reviewed the best way to make a payment to all our customers in light of the service outage we experienced in October. This outage was caused by a process in our plant detecting a software error in one of our systems. In this situation the safety process enforces a shut down and stops our supply.
“As gas systems are relatively complex, they cannot be immediately reinstated, and proper processes must be followed to reintroduce supply. As a result of this supply outage, Island Energy will be refunding the standing charge for the month of October to customers as a gesture of goodwill."
Jo Cox said the payment was a "gesture of goodwill".
She continued: "As there is no requirement for energy companies in Jersey to have pre-agreed compensation schemes in place we have been working with our insurance company to ascertain whether we were covered for this event.
"Unfortunately, as it was a total loss of supply due to circumstances out of our control, the insurance company has confirmed that it will not be covered. We recognise that this is disappointing for our customers and are therefore committed to refunding the entire month of October, rather than just the period of the outage.”
Ms Cox added that Island Energy has also been reviewing the disruption caused to commercial and business customers, who have been "assessed on a case-by-case basis".
"Whilst all customers will receive the credit on their account, most businesses have insurance for this type of disruption and it has been proven that this is typically the best route to recover lost revenue.
“We would like to apologise once again to our customers for the disruption to the supply of gas in Jersey and thank them for bearing with us while we worked to restore supply and while we conducted our review."
Follow Express for updates...
Another blow to Jersey pockets – gas prices are going up
Islanders face longer wait for "goodwill payments" news
No news on compensation for gas customers until New Year
"Lessons need to be learned" from gas outage communication struggles
Cooking on gas! Call for hospitality support as supply starts to return
Islanders warned about gas smell as big switch-on finally begins
Chippy owner facing losses of £10,000 due to gas outage
Households facing waits of up to five days for gas reconnection
New target for beginning of gas network restoration
Calls for compensation and nationalisation as gas woe continues
Island Energy "not in a position" to bring back gas supply tomorrow
FOCUS: Island Energy's CEO on what went wrong...and what happens next
Q&A: Thousands to be without gas for "several days" as repairs continue
Gas supply shutdown hits homes and businesses across the island
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.