British Gas Business fined £1 million

British Gas Business has been fined £1 million by Ofgem for misreporting the amount of electricity it supplied under the Renewables Obligation (RO).

The RO requires energy providers to provide evidence of the amount of electricity supplied from renewable sources as a proportion of the total electricity they supply.

British Gas Business, through inadequate procedures and its misinterpretation of the scheme’s reporting requirements, underestimated the amount of electricity it was supplying by 0.62% a year for seven years.

To rectify the error the firm is now retiring 87,000 RO certificates, with a market value of £2.8 million.

Ofgem said that the level of the fine would have been much higher, were it not for the fact that British Gas Business reported its error and has taken action to correct its mistake.