A PENSIONER LIVING on her own saw her electricity bill skyrocket to over €3,000 due to her meter not being read for two years.

The electricity bill, which went from €123 to €3,385 due to her electricity supplier not reading the meter for 24 months, was raised in the Dáil this afternoon.

Independent TD, Denis Naughten raised the case with Energy Minister Eamon Ryan, saying that the woman is being charged at the current electricity rates.

“To add to her shock, she is being charged all of these arrears at the current electricity rate compounding the financial hardship she is now facing, while the electricity supplier gains an excessive profit due to this inflated unit rate,” said Naughten.

“It seems that the regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, is not too bothered about this exploitation of vulnerable electricity customers as the only obligation they place on electricity suppliers is that they must ‘attempt’ to take a meter reading four times per year.”

The bills received by the pensioner Denis Naughten Denis Naughten

Naughten says that leaving a “banal” card that requires a customer to source the reading puts the onus on them to either submit the reading or face “astronomical bills”.

This is just not good enough and electricity suppliers and the regulator cannot just wash their hands of responsibility especially with people struggling to pay for the increasing cost of electricity.

“Neither the practice of allowing estimated bills to continually roll over nor profiteering from backdating all arrears at the current unit rate should be tolerated,” Naughten said.

“Thats a shocking case. It’s beyond belief that someone could have such an increase in a bill,” said Ryan in response.

“That customer needs to contact their supplier and indeed other possible support agencies to make sure that that situation is resolved and that they’re not left exposed.

Ryan added that the Government has instructed suppliers and the electricity regulator to engage with customers due to the rising cost of energy and that people should not be cut off.

Naughten called for rules similar to that of the UK, where customers cannot be billed for energy used more than 12 months previously.