Residents and businesses across Gedling borough could be due a refund from their energy supplier after industry regulator Ofgem revealed thousands of meters have been read incorrectly.
Ofgem said customers with imperial gas meters that were misread as metric have been overcharged. The exact number of affected customers will not be known before the end of the week.
The energy regulator said it has now asked all suppliers to investigate if their customers have been affected and urged them to provide their results by August 19.
Energy giant E.on, who employ thousands of people at their offices across Nottinghamshire, raised the issue, which prompted a wider probe into how many people have been over or undercharged across the UK.
In a statement Ofgem said “a very small number of gas customers” had been affected – believed to be around 0.03 per cent of the 27 million customers in the UK.
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It added: “Ofgem is working with suppliers to ensure consumers don’t lose out. This includes suppliers setting out plans to redress their affected customers, and to reach a quick resolution.
“Customers do not need to do anything. The very few affected will be contacted by their supplier.”
E.on has already issued an apology to its customers, saying 600 – including homes and businesses – had been affected.
They also revealed that customers who were overcharged are to be refunded, while the 250 who were undercharged will not have to pay any money back.
They said the error was down to some customers with newer metric meters being registered as having older imperial ones, and vice versa.
E.on has apologised to customers and revealed that those who had been overcharged would be refunded.
In a statement they said: “E.on has identified all those affected by this issue where the affected meter is still in situ and continue to work to identify any historic meters that have subsequently been exchanged that may have been impacted.
“E.on will contact all customers individually. Customers do not need to take any action.”
Industry body Energy UK said affected customers will be contacted and refunded.
A spokeswoman said: “Energy UK and its members are working hard to address the issue of the incorrect recording of imperial and metric gas meters.
“So far, detailed analysis shows an extremely small number of accounts have been affected, so customers need not worry.
“Any customer affected will be contacted shortly by their supplier and, where there has been overcharging, a refund will be issued as quickly as possible.”
