Power plant firms pay Ofgem £6m for false reporting
Two power plant firms have today agreed to pay Ofgem £6m in redress for misreporting the amount of energy they could supply.
Between March 2019 and September 2020, ESB Independent Generation Trading and Carrington Power regularly submitted misleading data to National Grid about the minimum amount of energy the Carrington power plant near Manchester could supply.
As a result, National Grid purchased more energy from the plant than required, and at times spent more money than it needed to, to help it balance supply and demand on the system.
The two firms have admitted to having “inadvertently breached” the rules and as a result will pay £6m into Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund, the regulator said.
Regulatory director Cathryn Scott said: “Ofgem has taken strong action against another generator for submitting inaccurate data to National Grid Electricity System Operator. Data accuracy is essential for keeping the costs of running the electricity system as low as possible for consumers.
“This case sends a clear signal to all generators that we are closely scrutinising their conduct and will not hesitate to act if they fall short of the standards we expect.”
In a statement, the two firms said: “Compliance with its regulatory obligations is a priority for ESBIGT. We take this breach extremely seriously and apologise for the inadvertent breach of our obligations.
“We were disappointed not to have met our own high standards and took immediate steps to comply with Ofgem’s guidance.
“Corrective actions have been taken to prevent reoccurrence, with new governance arrangements in place to ensure ongoing compliance.”
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