Any Island Energy customers who are unhappy or dissatisfied with the £11.56 ‘goodwill gesture’ offered to households following the outage in October last year are being asked to get in touch with the Jersey Consumer Council.
The Council is looking at what options it has available to try to secure the compensation Island Energy customers deserve or at least a refund of the costs many consumers incurred during the gas outage in October last year.
To start that process, those impacted are being asked to complete a short online survey on consumercouncil.je to enable the Council to assess to what extent individual households were affected.
Chairman Carl Walker said: ‘We already know of Islanders who went without hot water, could not cook hot meals at home and could not turn on their heating during the outage, so taking three months to come up with an offer of £11.56 is nothing short of an insult to its customers by Island Energy.
“We will now work on behalf of all those affected to try and secure a better deal for them – and everything and anything is on the table at this stage. Once we know how many Islanders we will represent, we shall choose the best course of action and do our very best.”
On 7 October, a technical fault by Island Energy left around 4,000 Islanders without gas. This lasted for days - and sometimes up to 14 days - before the gas was returned to them. Had the energy provider been regulated – like in the UK - it would have had to pay £60 for every day a customer went without gas beyond the first 24 hours.
Since then, Island Energy has increased gas prices by 12%, which is about £13.80 for an average family house. Meanwhile, in Guernsey, they raised the price by 8%.
On 25 January, we were given word that Island Energy was giving customers a gesture of goodwill by refunding the standing charge for October, worth £11.56.
Dissatisfied Island Energy customers are asked to click on the link below and complete the survey as honestly as possible. If they know of any neighbours or relatives who do not have internet access but were also affected by the outage, please visit those individuals or call them and complete the survey with them or on their behalf so that we can get a fair picture of the situation.
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